American actress clarifies her participation in document protesting Toronto Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary, saying she signed letter 'without reading it carefully enough'. Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomes her acknowledgment that declaration was one-sided
The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday welcomed a statement made by American actress Jane Fonda to clarify her participation in the “Toronto Declaration” a document signed by over 1,000 actors, directors, and writers and others protesting the Toronto Film Festival’s spotlight on Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary saying that Israel’s
cultural capital, “is built on destroyed Palestinian villages,” and that the “use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of … an apartheid regime.”
Cultural Boycott
Palestinian artists boycott Toronto film festival / Associated Press
Protesters condemn Canadian festival for showcasing Tel Aviv in series of movies. Petition criticizing festival signed by likes of Jane Fonda, Alice Walker
In her statement, which appeared in The Huffington Post, Fonda said she signed the letter, “without reading it carefully enough, without asking myself if some of the wording wouldn't exacerbate the situation rather than bring about constructive dialogue.”
In the midst of the controversy, Fonda approached Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center, one of the most vocal critics of the “Toronto Declaration.”
“I’ve known Jane for a long time and I had a very good discussion on this issue with her when she visited me at my home last Thursday,” said Rabbi Hier. “She told me then that she had not thoroughly vetted the ‘Toronto Declaration’ as
she should have and I think that she did the right thing by saying that and issuing this very much needed clarification to set the record straight."
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomes her acknowledgment that the Declaration was one-sided, that the description of Tel Aviv was unfair and that only the Palestinian point of view was presented and that the Declaration completely ignored the thousands of Hamas rockets fired into Sderot which left Israel no alternative except to enter Gaza – something they did not want to do,” he concluded.
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