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| US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel and Zi |
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| bhaloo |
| 04/20/02 at 10:48:38 |
| [slm] US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel and Zionism Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising Fri Apr 12, 2:25 AM ET By Scott Tom Smittey LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- In an announcement from Dream Works, Director Steven Spielberg announced that his latest project documents the current uprising of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza (Intifada). Spielberg, who has previously documented the horrors of the Holocaust in Schindler's List and World World II in the HBO series Band of Brothers, hopes that his new project would break the silence on a subject that until now has been taboo. In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter Spielberg said: "As an American Director who also happens to be Jewish, I can no longer stay silent about what the Israelis and the Zionist movement have been doing in the name of Judaism and with our tax money." He added "For years, the Hollywood community known to embrace progressive issues has been reluctant to tackle the issue of Palestine for fear of reprisal by what is perceived as a blind Jewish support to Israel in Hollywood. This needs to change; the sad history of the holocaust is being repeated again in Palestine at the hands of those who claim to do it in the name of Judaism. We should not remain silent." The project is sure to create a huge controversy in an industry that has been known to shun any pro-Palestinian activities. Actress Vanessa Redgrave was all but blacklisted from the Hollywood system after speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights in the seventies. A Dream Works spokesman declined to comment, saying he had not seen a copy of the project brief. |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| BrKhalid |
| 04/20/02 at 12:15:38 |
| Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) Over here in the UK there are more and more Jews who are coming out and voicing their opposition to Sharon. Once such Jew is Gerald Kaufman [a Labour Member of Parliament] who criticised Sharon at Westminster this week. He wrote an article in a London paper yesterday saying how he has been criticised by his fellow Jews since, but he has no qualms in standing up for what he sees as being right. I wonder what kind of backlash Speilberg will face from the Jewish lobby over there. |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| sabri |
| 04/20/02 at 15:36:01 |
| [slm] Spielberg is a heavy supporter of Zionism and has donated millions to zionist causes in Israel. There's no way that a report like this could ever be true. Go [url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/search/article_search.jsp]here[/url] and search for "palestinian" and this comes up: Spielberg target of bogus report April 16, 2002 - The Hollywood Reporter Steven Spielberg was hit Monday by a false report circulating on the Internet claiming that he is planning a DreamWorks feature film sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. (Gregg Kilday) [wlm] |
| 04/20/02 at 15:38:58 |
| sabri |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| Kashif |
| 04/20/02 at 18:59:02 |
| assalaamu alaikum jazakallahu khair sabri. Man, i fell for that one! Spielberg presenting the case of Palestine in a true light? As if! Kashif Wa Salaam |
| NS |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| amatullah |
| 04/20/02 at 20:43:48 |
| SPIELBERG HOAX Finally, on this subject, can this be true? Has the man who made Schindler’s list and runs a project documenting the holocaust, turned on Sharon? This doesn't sound right to me but maybe it is. It was in my email attributed to the Hollywood Reporter: " In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter Spielberg said: "As an American Director who also happens to be Jewish, I can no longer stay silent about what the Israelis and the Zionist movement have been doing in the name of Judaism and with our tax money. He added for years, the Hollywood community known to embrace progressive issues has been reluctant to tackle the issue of Palestine for fear of reprisal by shat is perceived as a blind Jewish support to Israel in Hollywood. This needs to change; the sad history of the holocaust is being repeated again in Palestine at the hands of those who claim to do it in the name of Judaism. We should not remain silent." After I posted this item, I learned that my first instinct was on target. It was a hoax as the Reporter reported today: " Steven Spielberg was hit Monday by a false report circulating on the Internet claiming that he is planning a Dream Works feature film sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The director's spokesman, Marvin Levy, called the report "an obvious, vicious hoax." The bogus news story was attributed to The Hollywood Reporter and carried the bylines of fictitious reporters. It was posted on several news lists and also forwarded to several Canadian-based news organizations as well as Jewish poltical-action groups and other activists. Under a headline that read "Spielberg to direct feature based on Palestinian Uprising," the false news story purported to quote Spielberg speaking out on behalf of the Palestinians and criticizing both Israel and Hollywood. The original source of the story, which circulated by e-mail, could not be determined. (Gregg Kilday)." |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| amatullah |
| 04/20/02 at 20:45:45 |
| Bismillah and salam, but like it was said jews are speaking out. From the Manchester Guardian MP accuses Sharon of 'barbarism' All sides condemn West Bank incursions Nicholas Watt, political correspondent Wednesday April 17, 2002 The Guardian The veteran Labour MP and prominent Jewish parliamentarian, Gerald Kaufman, yesterday launched a ferocious attack on the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, denouncing him as a "war criminal" who was staining the Star of David. Speaking in a Commons debate on the Middle East crisis, in which MPs from across the house condemned Israel's incursions into the West Bank, Mr Kaufman likened Mr Sharon's tactics to the actions of Zionist terrorists in Palestine in the 1940s. In an emotional speech, in which he described himself as a lifelong friend of Israel, the former shadow foreign secretary said: "Sharon has ordered his troops to use methods of barbarism against the Palestinians ... It is time to remind Sharon that the Star of David belongs to all Jews and not to his repulsive government. His actions are staining the Star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and Epstein, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians in the Sabra-Shatila camp and now involved in killing Palestinians once again." To nods of approval from MPs, Mr Kaufman condemned Palestinian suicide bombers. But he added that it was important to ask why Palestinians resort to such tactics. "We need to ask how we would feel if we had been occupied for 35 years by a foreign power which denied us the most elementary human rights and decent living conditions." Mr Kaufman then likened the suicide bombers to the Zionist Irgun and Stern gangs, which launched a series of terrorist attacks in Palestine in the run-up to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. "We need to ask what the Jews did in comparable circumstances," he said. "In 1946 the Irgun controlled by Menacham Begin blew up the King David hotel in Jerusalem, slaughtering 91 innocent people. In 1948 the Palestinians denounced what they described as a massacre in the village of Deir Yassin ... The difference between the Deir Yassin massacre and what happened in Jenin is that Deir Yassin was the work of terrorist groups denounced by mainstream Jewish groups. The horrors in Jenin were carried out by the official Israeli army." A Blair loyalist, Mr Kaufman warned that Mr Sharon's conduct had made it impossible for Britain and the United States to take action against Iraq. "To do so would unite the whole Muslim world against the US, the coalition against terrorism would disintegrate, western economies could suffer a shock comparable to the oil shock of 1973." Mr Kaufman's attack on the Israeli government were echoed across the chamber. The former Tory cabinet minister, John Gummer, said that a fundamental distinction should be drawn between the actions of the Israelis and that of the Arabs. "Israel is a state, with the trappings of a state which claims the legitimacy of a state and the more that it rightly claims that legitimacy, the more it has to be judged by the standards of a state and the standards of democracy," he said. Amid such a serious Middle East crisis it was irresponsible of Washington to take such a tough stance against Iraq, Mr Gummer warned. He criticised the "kind of approach that says that we judge what is in our self-interest and our self-defence and thereby can do anything we like, irrespective either of international law or the UN or indeed frankly of the evidence before us". Ann Clwyd, the Labour backbencher who has just returned from a visit to the Jenin refugee camp with the UN, said the EU should consider economic sanctions against Israel. Apologising for her croaky voice, caused by dust from Israeli tanks, she said it was not enough for European countries to "simply bleat condemnation". Ms Clwyd added: "They need to withdraw European ambassadors from Israel. They need to impose an arms embargo as Germany has already done, and they should consider what economic sanctions can be put in place." Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesman, condemned both sides. He also rounded on anti-Semitic groups in Britain which have distributed "hateful" leaflets. "They are an affront to decency, they disfigure democratic society and they disgrace our democracy," he said. |
| 04/20/02 at 20:52:17 |
| amatullah |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| amatullah |
| 04/20/02 at 20:51:09 |
| and another Here is a statement written by a retired University of Alberta employee Dr. Clement Leibovitz who is Jewish. He has modelled his statement after President John F. Kennedy's famous "I am a Berliner" speech at the height of the Cold War when West Berlin was cut off from the "Free World." I have received Dr. Leibovitz's permission to submit his statement for publication. It has been publicly released on the internet so it is a public document. I have also attached a brief biography at the end of his statement. Dr. Leibovitz is 78 years of age and was born in Egypt in 1924. I am sure that Dr. Leibovitz would be happy to be interviewed. He can be reached at the below address and telephone number. Please forward to your local newspaper. I AM A JEWISH PALESTINIAN At the time of the cold war, the US president John Kennedy, stood at a podium in West Berlin, and proclaimed in German that "I am a Berliner". At the time, no one could say that the sufferings of the East Berliners were close to those of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. No repression of the kind Israel inflicted on Jenin and other Palestinian cities, had been inflicted on the population of East Berlin. With much more justification, and in total solidarity, I do proclaim that I AM A JEWISH PALESTINIAN. And I accuse the Israeli government of savagery and barbarism against MY OWN PEOPLE, the Palestinian people to which I belong AS A JEW. I would not deserve to be JEWISH if I can remain silent to the hurt inflicted to my brothers and sisters, my people too, the Palestinians. Sharon and his likes are not Jewish. They are racists criminals in conflict with the humanist Jewish traditions. Had Einstein been alive, he would condemn them, as are doing so many Israeli members of their Israeli universities. With all my love to the Jewish people, With all my love to the Palestinian people, my people too Clement Leibovitz #56, 3221-119 street Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6J 5K7 Phone: (780) 436 9883 e-mails: cleibovi@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca or cleibovi@shawbiz.ca web sites: http://www.ualberta.ca/~cleibovi/home.html http://www.ualberta.ca/~cleibovi/homepage.html CLEMENT LEIBOVITZ BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT I am seventy-eight yeas old. I was born in Egypt. I left school at the age of 12 and stopped studying for 20 years. I later resumed studying and got a Ph.d. in Physics at the age of 48 (general relativity and cosmology) In 1976, at 53, I was diagnosed with cancer of the prostate and treated with radiation. In 1980, the tumour became again active and metastased to most of my body. I was told I had a single year to live. It is then that I became a writer. My first book which I wrote in a hurry was titled MEMOIRS OF GOD and was published four years later. It is a feminist book. It is out of print. I could send it to you as a message (180 pages) if you want, or as an attachment. Later I wrote history books uncovering the real causes of WW2. Four years ago, I was told that I was totally cured. Since six years I take no medicine and went to no check up in the last four years. I am now in very good health. On January 13 of 2000, I offered to give a kidney while I am still alive to the patient most in need, and younger than 40. Regulations forbid it except for the benefit of a wife or a biological son. I offered to adopt the patient as my son or daughter. It did not help. I am working on four writing projects. Since I was told I had a single year to live, I tried to make each day count for three, at least. |
| Re: US: Director Spielberg Speaks Out on Israel an |
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| amatullah |
| 04/20/02 at 20:57:00 |
| and another (there is a great idea in here that all of us should perhpas be trying to do) Here is an update email from Tikkun and Rabbi MichaelLerner who are speaking out strongly against Israel's campaign against the Palestinians. Hi! I thought you might want to hear a bit of update about what has been happening this past week. Because of the ongoing generosity and moral seriousness of people in The TIKKUN COMMUNITY and others who share this direction, we were able to raise enough money to print a second full-page ad in the Washington Post on Wednesday, April 10th. The ad said "NO" to both Ariel Sharon's violent rampage against the Palestinian people and "NO" to acts of Palestinian terror against Israeli civilians. It then went on to call upon President Bush to play a leadership role in creating a UN-sponsored military intervention to separate and protect the Palestinian people and the Israeli people from each other, and to convene an international conference, along the lines proposed by the Saudis, and starting from proposals made at Taba between Israel and Palestine in January 2001, and aiming to achieve a) An End to the Occupation, b) Reparations for the Palestinian refugees, and c) An end to terror and security for Israel. No sooner had the ad appeared on Wednesday than the White House floated a trial balloon saying that, "it would not rule out the use of US troops in a peacekeeping force." The implication was that someone there was paying serious attention to what The TIKKUN COMMUNITY was saying. That night, Rabbi Lerner appeared on MSNBC and debated Alan Dershowitz. The next morning, Rabbi Lerner was given a full half hour to present the ideas of the Tikkun Community on C-SPANS's Washington Journal. What was amazing was that most of the callers from around the country were very very positive about the Tikkun message!! Nevertheless, it also seemed clear that the message needed to be reinforced by showing that someone stood behind it in a serious way. So, on Thursday, April 11th, the TIKKUN COMMUNITY convened a rally in front of the State Department with hundreds of people. The message was strong: we support Bush and Powell's first steps in the direction of pressuring Israel but realize that even if they were serious about pressure, they are asking for something that is of only momentary significance--the withdrawal of troops from the Palestinian towns. Why momentary? Because they are only being withdrawn to the outskirts of the towns, and that means that they would be in position to immediately return the moment violence resumed. Both Rabbi Michael Lerner and TIKKUN COMMUNITY co-chair Cornel West explained that the need at this moment is for full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, or at the very least for an international force to separate the two sides and immediately stop the killing. Without that, the inevitable next acts of Palestinian terror (after what may be three weeks of Israeli state terror which has certainly sowed the seed for generations of new terrorists) would lead those only partially withdrawn forces to resume their rampage. Only a full and enforced separation would in fact stop the killings. After the rally, covered by some of the national media, Rabbi Lerner, Cornel West and 18 others sat down in protest of the Bush Administration's policies so far and were arrested. They were handcuffed with plastic cuffs, which cut many of their skins, and turned many fingers blue. After two hours of pain, the cuffs were removed, and they were put in to a holding cell. Rabbi Lerner and Cornel West were the last to be released after posting funds for a fine ($100 each) -- at 11 p.m. that evening. As a result, Rabbi Lerner was unable to attend the meeting of the New York TIKKUN COMMUNITY scheduled for that evening. That same day, a rally in support of the D.C. action and in opposition to the Occupation was convened by The Tikkun Community in San Francisco. Both Peter Gabel and Deborah Kory were among the speakers to the over 100 people who assembled at the Israeli consulate. Similar actions took place in NY that day. After being released, Rabbi Lerner traveled to Boston where he and Cornel West spoke at the New England conference of The TIKKUN COMMUNITY, co-sponsored by Call to Action, a cooperating progressive Catholic organization, to a crowd of over 300 people -- on Sunday. The New England branch of The TIKKUN COMMUNITY then held a planning meeting for their future activity -- and they appear to be the first region that is actually building a solid infrastructure. We are still hoping that others in other areas of the country will follow suit. I thought this report might be helpful to you. We are still waiting to hear from you about what role you might want to play in helping us build the project of the TIKKUN COMMUNITY (e.g. rapid response to challenge media distortions, organizing a local TIKKUN Leadership Group, or salon, or anything else that you might be willing to do to help make TIKKUN, among other things, an effective counter to the AIPAC -- one-dimensional support for Israel (we are the progressive pro-Israel group that supports Israel but opposes Ariel Sharon's policies). We are also trying to raise money (we need large donations, but whatever you can give will be appreciated) to buy more advertisements letting people know that there is another voice. We hope to advertise a gathering April 28th in Los Angeles -- and to further let people know that they can be pro-Israel without being pro-Sharon's policies. So let us know what you can contribute in way of time, money, energy, and ideas. Warm greetings, Liat Weingart Tikkun Community Coordinator |
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