Toronto Film Festival And Tel Aviv: Now The Protest About The Protest

COMMENTS (46)

• Where was this outrage when the Likud party in Israel this – the party of Prime Minister Netanyahu – called for a boycott of the annual US 4th of July Celebration. That is right – Israeli politicians hate President Obama they called for a boycott of US Independence Day celebrations in Israel – http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1246296541281. Chutzpa is Israel begging the US for $3 billion a year in our tax payer dollars and Israeli ruling party spitting in our face calling for a boycott of the US!

  And where was your outrage when Israeli’s have called our President the “n” word and worse on Youtube videos. Obviously there is a reason Desmond Tutu has publicly criticized Israeli policy.

  Who do u stand with – the US or Israel?!! It’s time to stand with the US and against racism and occupation.

  Comment by Joe Locascio — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 6:49am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Amen.

    Meanwhile, I guess all the anti-right wing, anti-occuption journalists at Haaretz are self-hating Jews/Israelis, right?

    Sure. Just like all the white people who stood up against Jim Crow during the Civil Rights movement here (including countless courageous, principled American Jews) were commie “traitors to their race” and “n*gger-lovers,” right?

    Yeah, good luck selling the critics-of-Israeli-policies-are-Jew-haters story. I’m sure you’ve got a real winner there.

    Comment by Dustintime — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 12:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • I don’t really see how those examples are relevant to this situation, like, at all.

    Comment by Hunter D. — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 1:25pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Joe Locascio (Sept. 12 @ 6:49am), you distort or perhaps don’t understand the facts and you exhibit a profound ignorance of reality, both traits that are always present in the prejudicial anti-Semite.

    A) Click your own link to see that one member of the Israeli parliament asked his fellow legislators to boycott a Fourth of July celebration at the home of the American ambassador. There is no outrage because it is not an issue, just as all democratic members of the US congress don’t agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comment equating those against nationalizing healthcare with Nazi’s.

    B) you claim Chutzpah (yiddish for ‘nerve’) by Israel for ‘begging’ for $3 billion in US aid and calling for a boycott of Israel. And…you are flat out wrong again. Nobody is begging for $3 billion in US aid. The US-Israel relationship is and has been extraordinarily mutually beneficial for many years. In fact, a cursory comparison of nations receiving the most US aid indicates that the US aid to Israel is the best spent financial aid.

    C) There is no call by any Israeli of a boycott of the US. One Israeli parliamentarian asked his colleagues to join him in not attending a Fourth of July celebration. That does not equate a boycott of the US.

    D) Regarding use of the “N” word by an Israeli, do the acts of an Israeli represent the thoughts of all Israelis? I think not.

    E) Desmond Tutu criticized Israel for the same reason that most of the world criticizes Israel – because it’s a Jewish nation state.

    F) You ask the readers here to take a stand against occupation. I’m not sure what occupation you are referring to. If you mean the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, we have seen what happened after withdrawal from Gaza, and that does not make a strong case for withdrawing from the West Bank. When those who now call themselves Palestinian (this nationality did not exist before 1968) become a self determined people who are ready and capable of nation building, then the occupation will end. Unfortunately, since the occupation began, there has never been any reason whatsoever to believe that there is a partner that can become a peaceful or non-aggressive neighbor. Lord knows Israel has bent over backwards trying to make this happen and has suffered greatly for it.

    So Joe, you are looking for a lot of outrage when nothing you mention having happened was outrageous. You are a poor excuse for an anti-Semite. Most anti-Jewish diatribes are clothed in age-old canards that lend a feeling of certainty and great legitimacy. Yours is sloppy.

    Now that I have dismantled your poorly articulated anti-Semitic comments, can i go back to reading scripts…please?

    Comment by whassuphaters — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 7:26pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • to”whatsuphaters” kol hakavod. you said it perfectly and with undisputed, factual truth. how i wish i could stay so calm and rational in the face of hatred and ignorance. again kol hakavod and happy, healthy new year.

      Comment by miriam levy — Thursday September 17, 2009 @ 4:34am PDT  Reply to this post

• The greatest support for the nation of Israel is now firmly rooted in both the Christian community and the Republican party while many of its greatest enemies reside in Hollywood and the democrat (national socialist) party. It is a shame that so many liberal jews in America have surrendered their heritage in favor of a secular and leftist ideology. You are a fool and complicit in the destruction of Israel if you purchase a movie ticket, buy a video or tune in to a television program that includes any contribution from these rabid leftists. These people never miss an opportunity to find fault with America and Israel while breaking bread with many of the world’s most heinous despots and terrorists. Exercise your freedom of speech with your wallet—it is the most powerful tool you have.

  Comment by AaronSch — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 9:58am PDT  Reply to this post

• I have to say, I’m so excited to finally hear the TIFF and possibly Hollywood is finally acknowledging the situation in Israel for what it really is: apartheid. Having lived through the the American civil rights movement, marched arm in arm with my Jewish brothers and sisters, it hurts me that they cannot recognize discrimination and evil amongst their own.

  Working in Hollywood, these are not popular beliefs but I support you Nikki for airing them. Because, I have held these thoughts all along.

  Comment by So excited — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 1:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Call a spade a spade, people do not give a rats ass about the Palestinians. The world hates the Jews, there hatred of Jews can now be shrowded in the veil of “hatred for Israel” Or “Anti Zionist” but not anti Jewish. Bull Ship, you hate the Jews.
  Let’s think about this for a second, Israeli Arabs have full equal rights and live and work in Israel, Can Jews live in Palestine?
  Gays live and work in Israel, Can gays openly live and work in Palestine?
  Women have full rights in Israel, do Women have full and equal rights in Palestine?
  The answer just in case your “progressive” news sources or Palestinian handlers forget to tell you is NO.

  For all the so called “progressives” out there, when you condemn Israel and support Palestine, you are supporting the hatred of Women,Gays and the mass indoctrination of youth to support violent Jihad against Jews and the West. I have visited Israel and Palestinian areas and I want you to know you have no idea what you are talking about when you state that Israel is a “apartheid regime” you are just mimicking the left wing and Islamist anti Israel and anti Jewish talking points. You are not Progressive and you are not pro-peace. Because in your call for Israels destruction you will be supporting the 2nd Genocide of another 6million plus Jews.

  So get out of your Priass and think for a second, your not a progressive you are just a bigot shrowded in a fantasy that you are a peace loving humanist. Truth is that is just a huge load of shit. You support regimes which squander the rights of Gays, Women and minorities. Yet instead of condeming the true evil dictators, you elevate the likes of Arafat,Hamas,Hizbullah,Amhedinijad, Kim Jong and the like while condeming countries such as Israel and the U.S.A.

  Sad sad sad.

  Comment by RonG — Saturday September 12, 2009 @ 5:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• i am disgusted by Ken Loach, Danny Glover, Viggo Mortenson, Jane Fonda et al’s boycot of this festival. it’s a free country and everyone is allowed their own political views, but to punish FILMMAKERS from another country over their beliefs is disgusting.
  I know what i’m going to do… I’m going to boycot anything that Ken Loach, Viggo Mortenson, Danny Glover, and/or Jane Fonda is involved in. I sure hope many others will too.

  Comment by itsabsurd — Sunday September 13, 2009 @ 5:39pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m slightly amused at these absurd people who say things like “tel aviv is contested land” or state all sorts of things they must have read somewhere, which distort history. these arm-chair critics don’t deserve to be even called anti-semitic, they are simply fools. read history or talk to someone who actually lives here. Better yet, if you feel so strongly in your beliefs, and are afraid that people may be feeding you lies, why not come to Israel and see for yourself? my gym trainer (in tel aviv) is Arab. I meet Arabs at my pool. I went to school with them (highschool and university) and they are at shops I go to (shopping themselves or working at the counter). to call Israel an aparthide state is so laughable it makes my ribs hurt.

  Comment by micha, israel — Saturday September 19, 2009 @ 4:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

• For all the people who “dont agree with the policy of the Israeli goverment”, i really want to know what do you think Israel should do differently?
  1. Maybe cancel some check-points so more terrorists can enter Israel and blow themsleves up in a coffee shop?
  2. maybe give more money to the Palestinians so their leaders can keep all the money to themslves
  3. give them half of Jerusalem so more danger to israel and democracy will come (no more tourists in Jerusalem)

  there is no apartheid, simply becuase Israel is not responsible for the Paletinians, they live at their own place with their own goverment, own flag, own country code, own parlemnt and own set or rules and values, they choose to live that way so they can stay the victim, its their problem, not Israel, they get enough support and money for Europe and could make things different

  Comment by Ben — Wednesday September 23, 2009 @ 12:28pm PDT  Reply to this post