Saree Makdisi, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, and a nephew of Edward Said, has inherited his uncle's political outlook ‑ an opposition to the existence of the state of Israel. Like Said, Makdisi has channeled his animosity into publishing anti‑Israel screeds full of false rhetoric. He has become, for instance, a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, despite a November 2004 Op‑Ed which was corrected due to factual errors and distortions.
No sooner did Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffer a massive stroke, than Slate posted an error-ridden column by regular contributor Christopher Hitchens, falsely suggesting that Ariel Sharon masterminded the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. Ironically, the article is meant to praise Sharon, albeit grudgingly, for his political transformation from a proponent of the settler movement to a proponent of the creation of a Palestinian state. But to do this, Hitchens demonizes the Israeli leader's past actions, misrepresenting the facts along the way.
BBC/PBS Documentary
Produced and Directed by Norma Percy
150 minutesThis BBC documentary spares no effort to portray the Palestinians as blameless victims and the Israelis as heartless oppressors. Ignoring most Palestinian terror attacks, and blaming the eventual Israeli response to those attacks for the demise of cease-fire efforts, is just one of the many techniques used by the filmmakers in their tendentious effort to indict Israel.
Academic boycott of Israeli universities by the British Association of University Teachers, among the first to jump onto the BDS bandwagon, was based in large part on charges relating to Zionist ideologue Ilan Pappé's unscholarly promotion of a contested claim of an Israeli-perpetrated massacre of Arabs in Tantura. What were the claims? How did Pappé promote them? And how was it used as a pretext for boycott?
In celebration of CNN's first 25 years, the network collaborated with Time magazine to broadcast a special highlighting "the top 25 most fascinating people." Ranking 15 and 10 are Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat. CNN's treatment of the two leaders is itself fascinating because it gives disproportionate play to Palestinian grievances against Sharon, and downplays Arafat's terrorism.
Directed by Pierre Rehov
English, Arabic, Hebrew and French with English subtitles
52 minutesThe flim review is combined with that of “Road to Jenin.” In “The Road to Jenin,” filmmaker Pierre Rehov’s clear purpose is to expose the inflamma–y–and defamatory–falsehoods spread by works like Jenin, Jenin. As such his film does not attempt to be an overview of the Israeli and Palestinian experience in Jenin or an exhaustive account of IDF conduct. Nevertheless, the information that Rehov does provide is based on interviewees who use bona fide images and documents to substantiate their claims.
Jenin, Jenin (2002)
Directed by Mohammed Bakri
Arabic with English Subtitles
54 minutes*The flim review is combined with that of "Road to Jenin." In "The Road to Jenin," filmmaker Pierre Rehov's clear purpose is to expose the inflammatory–and defamatory–falsehoods spread by works like Jenin, Jenin. As such his film does not attempt to be an overview of the Israeli and Palestinian experience in Jenin or an exhaustive account of IDF conduct. Nevertheless, the information that Rehov does provide is based on interviewees who use bona fide images and documents to substantiate their claims.
To better understand Muslim rejection of Israel -- and more broadly, hatred of the West -- Americans must look beyond the arguments of those who use Israel as a scapegoat, citing this or that Israeli policy.
