NBC 10 in Philly reports a disturbing case of censorship, and of course it’s Jewish stuff that’s censored. Fortunately, a court stepped in and undid the censorship with a restraining order. Click the headline to read, and you can also find a shorter account on ABC 6 in Philly.
- The Philly Palestine Coalition – which has organized several pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas War in October of last year – called for the Israeli Film Festival in Philly and the Main Line to be canceled, claiming the event is sponsored by Israel Bonds, also known as the Development Corporation for Israel.
- The Bryn Mawr Film Institute (BMFI) — a theater and institute based in Bryn Mawr — announced they were pulling their screening of one of the movies involved in the festival, “The Child Within Me,” a documentary focused on Israeli musician Yehuda Poliker.
- The decision sparked outrage and a protest from local Jewish groups as well as a court order requested by the Israeli Film Festival, according to a lawyer representing the festival. The lawyer accused BMFI of breaching its contract by pulling the film. BMFI later confirmed they would screen the film following the court order.
What’s bizarre about all this is that while the pro-Palestinian groups wanted to cancel the entire showing, the BMFI decided to pull just one of the movies, and one that had absolutely nothing to do with the war, or anything related to it.
Guy Brodetzki, an Israeli man who currently resides in Lower Merion, also organized a grassroots group of concerned citizens called the Hope for Israel Alliance – Philadelphia. Brodetzki told NBC10 “The Child Within Me” has nothing to do with the Israel-Hamas War.
“Very famous singer. The movie is about him. And he’s very special,” Brodetzki said. “He was gay when it wasn’t that easy to be gay. He’s the son of Holocaust survivors. Many of his songs are about being a child of Holocaust survivors. This is the movie. There’s no mentioning of the Arab-Israeli conflict at all. There’s no mentioning of the war. There’s no mentioning of Palestinians. Nothing. It’s all about him. It’s about Jewish-Israeli culture. So why on earth would you want to cancel the showing of this kind of movie?”
Before lawyers got involved, BMFI issued a pathetic excuse for canceling the movie. Get a load of this dissimulation!:
“Bryn Mawr Film Institute is not a political organization. We don’t endorse or oppose any causes. In past years, we have not regarded hosting a screening from the Israeli Film Festival as a political partnership or taking a stance on any issues,” a BMFI spokesperson wrote. “This was our feeling when we arranged the 2024 screening many months ago. However, as the situation in Israel and Gaza has developed, it has become clear that our showing this movie is being widely taken among individuals and institutions in our community as an endorsement of Israel’s recent and ongoing actions. This is not a statement we intended or wish to make. For this reason, BMFI is canceling the sole screening of the music documentary, The Child Within Me.”
And then the law stepped in:
Brodetzki’s group planned a protest outside the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Tuesday. After the protest was planned, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, an attorney representing the Israeli Film Festival, told NBC10 the movie would still be screened at BMFI Tuesday evening following a court order. Marcus accused BMFI of breaching its contract when they attempted to pull the film from the festival.
That’s all it took, and the film festival caved, saying that they were “flawed human being” making “bad calls” (see below). Their intention was surely not to hurt and offend Jews, but it was certainly to avoid Palestinian ire. It is due to fear of Palestinian action against the film that the BMFI took action. I wonder if they would bow to pressure from any other group about non-Israeli films.
So here’s the apology, which, as Shania Twain said, “don’t impress me much.”
Something similar happened in Hamilton recently:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/playhouse-jewish-film-festival-1.7155110
And same thing in Vancouver.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/the-runner-cancelled-vancouver-push-festival-1.7081526
…but not for our anti-semitism, or for our craven refusal to stand up against the threat of islamic terrorism.
Just like the Nazis, appeasing Islamists just makes them stronger and more extreme. Like Putin, they won’t stop until they’re stopped. Which isn’t going to happen, there are too many distractions to united, concerted action. I mean you would think it would be easy to rally the USA against Russia and Iran. It isn’t, because what’s needed is something no one wants to face. They have been at war with us for years. If we do not respond appropriately we will reap what Neville Chamberlain achieved all those years ago. Simple-minded peace is not the answer.
+1
While the West sits idle, possessed by fear and greed, the Axis of Evil becomes ever stronger. Hamas are friendly with Russia, and Oct. 7 is Putin’s birthday (he likes receiving bloody presents on his birthday; an earlier one was the murder of opposition journalist Anna Poliitkovskaya).
You are so correct, “ possessed by fear and greed” useless spineless politicians are the norm and they are the ones who probably will not live long enough to see first hand the folly of their ways.
Dangerous and damaging precedents are being set (not the court order, but what preceded it) all around us – in the west.
The west needs to stop appeasing Islamism.
Mockery as a successful ‘weapon’:
We mock christianity, endlessly, perhaps that is as it should be. All religions must face and absorb similar mockery (in the west) sans a fatwa standing in the wings.
+1
…As the situation in Israel and Gaza has developed, it has become clear that our showing this movie is being widely taken…as an endorsement of Israel’s recent and ongoing actions.”
I paraphrase: “It has become clear to us that any movie about any Jew is taken as an endorsement of Israel’s recent and ongoing actions.” That’s sick! And by the way, Israel’s “recent actions” are an effort to defeat a genocidal gang that threatens Israel’s existence. We live in a topsy-turvy world.
My first (in decades) confrontation: my wife and I went to the campaign kick-off event for our Senator Tim Kaine this past Saturday evening. It was on the property of a private npo museum. So as we parked I was surprised to see a dozen or so little shits on the sidewalk between us and the event hall carrying pali flags, colors and signs, and chanting the usual river/sea crap along with directed verbal attacks on Tim such as he has blood on his hands. My woke wife told me that if I said anything to them we were going home (she was the driver); that what they want is to get a rise out of people and so I should just ignore them and walk quietly past. But I refused to be cowed and let them continue to believe they were in charge. So I got out of the car before she could turn around, walked past them about fifty feet in front, urged them to commit some unnatural acts with themselves, extended the middle digit to tell them they were number one, but also provided some serious statements of pushback. The local police were smiling, I felt better, and maybe one or two of them felt some opposition…maybe. I think that we geezers who grew up just post-holocaust in the 50’s have a responsibility to not stand silently by. What do ya’ll think?
Agree. And I think anything is better than nothing. Your wife was right but still your actions were needed. Like Tim Snyder says, do not obey in advance.
There are men who will not be cowed by a dozen little shits, but one glare from an angry wife will turn them to butter!
On a [more] serious note. The differing approaches advocated by your wife and pursued by you are, I think, playing out on an international stage. Each of us has a disposition—some inclined more to talk or listening, others to more confrontational action. (Yes, sex and testosterone have a play here, but there is overlap between the sexes.) I think that the mistake that many make is to either favor their dispositional tendency or to mirror image in all situations—without sufficient knowledge of or regard for the attitudes and likely behaviors of their antagonists. Thus, we get on one side of the spectrum university administrators who get trampled on by snotty ass “children,” as well as figures in the US Administration who bribe and plead with Iran to behave, while on the other side we get young, black men gunning each other down in our cities rather than accept being “disrespected” by anybody.
Of these two poles, I think the more dangerous for a nation is the avoidance of aggressive physical confrontation in the face of armed and hostile men who lack the “socialization” into the now-more preferred forms of Western discourse.
So, Jim, were these pink-haired, nose-ringed, snotty little waifs you confronted?! Maybe your wife had a good point! But, then again, if we extinguish the fighting spirit of your “toxic masculinity,” then we won’t have anything left to protect and defend.
Thanks Doug. I think that Walter Isaacson set the bar properly in his quiet but firm impromptu action at Tulane a week or so ago.
Agreed. The subsequent and pathetic display of little, red “scratch” marks as indicative of assault suggests the nature of the problem.
Wow. They were “concerned for public safety” not because of the content of the film but because others who would be breaking the law if they caused any member of the public who attended the screening to be injured. Why not request some police presence and make a statement that violence would not be tolerated?
If you read the “apology”, they are saying that they are showing the film not because it is the right thing to do, but because they were forced to. Therefore the people in the community they are apologizing to for disappointing are not the filmgoers, but rather the anti-semites who wanted the showing canceled.
In other words, “We agree with you pro-Palestinian protesters that we shouldn’t show the film or anything that tells a positive or truthful story of even one Jewish person, but the court forced us to do it, so we are sorry that it will be shown.”
At least that’s how I read it.
Agree. Pretty disappointing overall.
“Let’s be direct: we…[got caught].”
Land of the (lawyer’s) fee, and the home of the knave. 🙁