From Independence to Suicide

Ben-Dror Yemini
Ma'ariv, April 25, 2007

"Jaffa" is a documentary about the orange and the brand, the story of Palestinian oppression by the Zionist capitalism and colonialism. This is a story of the Engineering Corps bulldozers committing more than the habitual war crimes. The film takes us to a higher level. Now the bulldozers are destroying Palestinian orchards without anything do with terror or suicide attacks, but only to satisfy Israeli greed: bulldozers in the service of capitalism. This film is not just about the orange and the brand. This film is the story of Zionism crimes: the Zionist colonial-capitalist plot about to be exposed.
Who wrote the screenplay, Protocols of the Elders of Zion fans? German neo-Nazi groups? The Islamic Jihad propaganda service? Or is it perhaps the Israeli cultural institutions that have chosen this film to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel independence?
The State is Israel is losing its will to live. She despises those who love her and honors those who hate her. And this is nothing new. This has been going on for some time now and is threatening our very existence. Perhaps not our physical existence in the near future. But this is the trend, the purpose, the fashion.

Suicidal democracy
Three public institutions, Israeli Channel 8, the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Rabinovich Foundation have decided recently to fund ex-pat Eyal Sivan, a known hater of Israel, for the making of an anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic movie to mark the celebration of Israel's 60th birthday anniversary.
The Israeli democracy is and should be able to suffer all. Even pathological phenomena such as Eyal Sivan. The problem, however, are the commissars who have the gall to select this evil man and his screenplay. And it is not Ahmadinejad who will fund the movie, but we, the Israeli tax-payers, if we choose to keep our mouths shut.
The problem is the national strength failure syndrome that is taking hold of Israel. The problem is that the majority, left and right, all of us have become a doormat for everyone. Everybody is allowed to spit on us. So we will pay this Sivan person a fortune to make an anti-Semitic movie for us to watch on our next Yom ha-Atzmaut. This man has for years been part of the propaganda aimed at putting an end to the "Zionist enterprise". He has expressed his despicable ideas in films, lectures and publications. Only a few weeks ago he was behind the "Apartheid Week" organized in Britain by a bunch of organizations seeking the destruction of the State of Israel. A petty servant in the agitprop machine busy demonizing the State of Israel.
The list of evils committed by this man is a long one. A previous film churned out by Sivan's anti-Semitic production line earned Sivan the label "anti-Semitic Jew" from the usually indifferent Alain Finkielkraut. Sivan filed suit against Finkielkraut. Intellectuals from left rather than from the right side of the political spectrum testified and proved that Sivan was indeed an anti-Semitic Jew. The French court rejected Sivan's lawsuit. And this is not the only instance. One of the most prestigious cultural establishments in France, the Pompidou Center, cancelled the film screening. But in Israel there are those who have not had enough of Sivan and they want to pay him to come up with more. We have lost all shame.

Gang rape
And if this was not enough, immediately after his suit was rejected, the man made public his intentions of embarking on a public campaign against the "dangers of diseased philosemitism hiding behind European support for Israel". "Diseased philosemitism" indeed! It is perhaps wrong to assume that the man is part of the new anti-Semitism, because even the old kind of anti-Semitism couldn't have come up with something better.
Sivan even hit the bottom with his rendition of the Eichmann trial. He made a laughing stock of prosecutor Gideon Hausner and of testifying Holocaust survivors. He inserted out-of- context answers. Tammy Raveh-Hausner, the attorney's daughter, spoke of students who after watching the film had no idea why and for what offense Eichmann was standing trial at all. This is the result of a Holocaust movie made by a Jew thinks that Israel is walking in the footsteps of Nazi Germany.
And now, this man, who is rightfully thought by many to be anti-Semitic, has been chosen by Israeli public institutions to make a film for Israel's 60th anniversary. Have we lost all measure of self-respect?
The bleeding hearts will jump and claim that this is democracy at its best. True, suicidal democracy. Has Britain given any funding to any treacherous lord for propaganda? Is this freedom of speech?
The response of all those involved is predictable: it is none of our business, it is beyond our control, we cannot interfere, this is freedom of speech and freedom of creation. The response of shunning responsibility. The response of institutionalized spitting on the collective face of the absolute majority of the citizens of the State of Israel. The Rabinovich Foundation claimed that two professional bodies – the lecturers and the Advisory Professional Board - chose Sivan's film, but the decision had not yet been ratified by the Board of Directors.

Symbol of Oppression
This evil man is no stranger to those who chose him. They know exactly who he is and what the stands for. They didn't choose him despite his hatred for Israel, but rather because of his hatred for Israel. As a supporter of the boycott against Israel, Sivan wrote in his proposal: "The orange imported from Israel is boycotted just as the orange imported from apartheid South-Africa, or from Franco's fascist Spain, or from Pinochet's Chile. The orange becomes a symbol of oppression or justice."
Sivan concludes his proposal stating that by "clearing ground in the guise of security reasons, the Israeli engineering corps" implements economical agreements that stifle the Palestinians. Sivan is totally oblivious of suicide bombings and terrorist activities. And he is not satisfied with accusing Israel of war crimes. He goes up one notch: he has found the reason – capitalist Zionist greed.
Just as the Eichmann film ridiculed the prosecutor and the Holocaust survivors, the Jaffa orange makes no secret of its conclusion: a call to terminate this greedy, criminal country. Yes, this is the commissars' birthday present for our 60th year of independence as a Jewish state.
Those who chose the film read the proposal. They knew exactly whom and what they were opting for. And now they want it to happen at our expense.
This cancer is infecting not only the man himself. This cancer is at the heart of the anti-Zionist clique, representing perhaps 0.5% of the Israeli public, but holding the power and calling the shots in the Israeli cultural institutions. They have the nerve to hide behind "freedom of speech and freedom of creation" and hand out taxpayer money to sponsor the gang rape perpetrated on the Israeli public.
We are entering into the 60th year of the State of Israel without independence, sovereignty or democracy. What we have is a severe syndrome of national strength failure mixed with anti-Zionism and anti-Israel feelings laced with anti-Semitism. Unless a loud outcry is heard from the left and from the right of the political spectrum, this strength failure will become another milestone towards the demise of the State of Israel. We have to put an end to this disgrace.

It appears however that the decision has been reversed and acclaimed artist Eyal Sivan made a fool of himself during the Knesset hearing.
And the funny thing is that the first large scale growers and exporters of Jaffa oranges were the German Templers who settled in Palestine in the 19th century. And who do you think turned citrus cultivation into a form of art?
"The cultivation of the orange, introduced by the Arabs before the commencement of Jewish settlement, has developed to a very great extent in consequence of that settlement. There is no doubt that the pitch of perfection to which the technique of plantation and cultivation of the orange and grape-fruit have been brought in Palestine is due to the scientific methods of the Jewish agriculturist." (the Hope Simpson Royal Commission Report of 1930)