Norwegian fest boycotts Israeli film on kids with disabilities

[shira]

Yet another example of boycotters deliberately dehumanizing Israelis...

Organizers tell director they support cultural and academic ban on Jewish state, will only show movies about occupation

Norwegian film festival recently rejected an Israeli documentary on children with disabilities, telling its director that it supports the boycott on the Jewish state and will not screen Israeli movies unless they deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.....

“I’m sorry but we can’t show this film,” a letter from the organizers to Zafrani said. “We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel so unless the films are about the illegal occupation, or deals with the occupation or the blockade of Gaza, or otherwise about the discrimination of Palestinians, we can’t show them.”

....Zafrani maintained that the film received no funding from the Israeli government. “It’s absurd. I’m not a political man. I am not responsible for my government’s actions,” he said. “This is an entirely independent film, with zero funding from Israeli public grants, so the boycott cannot even be justified by saying that it was made with government support.”

[font color = "red"]“This boycott is simply because it’s a film that shows a different, nice side of Israel,” he added.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/norwegian-festival-boycotts-israeli-film-on-disabled-kids/


Gee, and people wonder why BDS is seen as a hate movement.

[6chars]

1. Looks like a wonderful movie.

[Little Tich]

2. There isn't anything about this in the mainstream Norwegian news.

I will withold judgement on the Human Rights Human Wrongs festival as well the alleged involvement of Opera Software (they're supposed to be festival sponsors) until I know more about this. There's also another reason for me to be reluctant - All the local websites reporting on this are hate sites or connected to hate sites in some way.


However, here's the link to the Human Rights Human Wrongs festival:
http://hrhw.no/

Here's an informative article in Norwegian (potential hate site, caution is advised)
http://korsetsseier.no/2015/08/19/filmfestival-boikotter-israelske-filmer/

Here's a sligthly rambling account in Swedish that implicates the involvement of Opera Sofware (also a potential hate site)
http://israelisverige.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/norge-bojkottar-israelisk-film-om.html

[oberliner]

6. Its in the mainstream Norwegian media (along with the New York Times)

NY Times article:

Festival in Oslo Rejects Film by Roy Zafrani, Citing Cultural Boycott of Israel

Israeli-Norwegian relations have hardly been a flash point in the troubled history of the Middle East. But a programming decision last week by a film festival in Oslo to reject a film simply for its Israeli-ness may have opened a new chapter in the boycott movement against Israel.

In an apologetic email received on Aug. 10, a filmmaker in Tel Aviv, Roy Zafrani, learned that his short documentary, “The Other Dreamers,” had been rejected by the Human Rights Human Wrongs festival, which focuses on political documentaries.

“We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel,” wrote Ketil Magnussen, founder of the festival’s parent organization, the Oslo Documentary Cinema. He added that unless Mr. Zafrani’s films were about the “illegal occupation,” the blockade of Gaza, or discrimination against Palestinians, they would not be shown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/movies/festival-in-oslo-rejects-film-by-roy-zafrani-citing-cultural-boycott-of-israel.html

Norway media:

Norwegian docfest boycotts Israeli films

http://www.thelocal.no/20150817/norwegian-docfest-boycotts-israeli-films

[Little Tich]

9. thelocal.no isn't for local consumption.

I checked the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish dailies (Aftenposten, Verdens Gang, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Jyllands-Posten, Politiken) and there's nothing about Zafrani. I also made a general websearch on "Roy Zafrani", "boycott", "Jew", "Israeli movie" in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish (eg "Norge bojkottar israelisk film", "Israelsk film blir boikottet i Norge" "Norsk filmfestival boykotter israelsk film" etc) and the only results that came up were on questionable sites.

I don't know why this isn't reported in mainstream Scandinavian media, it could be that they haven't caught on yet. This is slightly annoying, as I can't pass judgement on something that's not confirmed.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. A boycott is a boycott, my poor friend.

I understand that it is hard for some to wrap their mindsaround such concepts, but perhaps the Apartheid government in Tel Aviv should divest itself if illegal colonialism in the West Bank.

Haven't the Palestinians suffered enough under Israeli rule?

[cali]

4. no, that is not some eternal truth

Not when BDS, who/which I generally support, uses McCarthyesque tactics against non-Israeli Jewish artists. And no, I don't see that as a one time aberration.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. The our opinions differ. Perhaps more Israelis will start

to realize that it is in their best interests to pull their illegal colonists off of land that does not beling to them.

Roy Zafrani may have an outstabding movie, and I am sure he is annoyed by this descision.

Perhaps he can now understand, if but a little, the annoyance that Palestinians go through every day: trying not to be murdered, shot at, having their lives dusrupted, living like slaves as they watch their lands gobbled up piece by peace.

No apologies.

[oberliner]

7. It's not an opinion, you are just wrong

Yet he may have slightly misinterpreted the boycott’s mission: According to Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and a founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (or, B.D.S.) movement, the cultural and academic part of the campaign calls for “boycotts against Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law, not against individuals.”

Mr. Barghouti said by email that although he wasn’t familiar with Mr. Magnussen’s reasoning, the cultural boycott guidelines “unambiguously” state that “mere affiliation of Israeli cultural workers to an Israeli cultural institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott.” He added, “If, however, an individual is representing the State of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution, or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to ‘rebrand’ itself, then her/his activities are subject to the institutional boycott the B.D.S. movement is calling for.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/movies/festival-in-oslo-rejects-film-by-roy-zafrani-citing-cultural-boycott-of-israel.html

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. Opinions vary, ober.

Mr. Magnussen did not respond to phone messages and emails, but over the weekend he said on Facebook that he signed a petition supporting the boycott three years ago; is opposed to Israeli policies toward Palestinians; and that although his decision was not about an individual filmmaker or film, the aims of the boycott are sound.