Shooting ourselves in the foot

Yair Lapid presents disturbing story about anti-Israel film funded by government

Yair Lapid|Published: 01.24.10 , 18:15

Here is a small yet very typical story regarding the way Israel shoots itself in the foot (and in a few other spots that are much more sensitive).

Jonathan Segal was a young actor who later became a rather marginal film director. About five years ago he turned to the Israel Film Fund – which is a public institution funded by the government – and requested support for a film regarding his mother’s experiences at the concentration camp. The fund approved the production and granted him NIS 1 million.

Three years later, Segal came back to the fund with a new idea: He will take his mother’s story and shift it to Ramallah. Instead of two girls at a concentration camp, the film will recount the stories of two young Palestinian females under Israeli occupation.

For some reason, nobody at the fund thought there was anything problematic with this change. The new screenplay was approved, a million shekels – from your and my money – were handed over, the shooting of the film got underway and it goes on at this time.

This week I received a brochure sent by Segal to potential distributors and investors ahead of the film’s release. The director’s vision notes that the film is inspired by Segal’s mother and the way she and her friend survived the Shoah and the traumatic concentration camp experience. It also notes that great persuasion work was needed in order to convince the Israel Film Fund to approve a story arguing that the occupation is worse than what Israel ever admitted to, and can be compared to the Holocaust.

With this brochure in my hand I called Katriel Schory, the Israel Film Fund’s director. “Are you out of your mind?” I asked him.

Schory sounded no less shocked than I was. “Listen,” he said, “I didn’t know this is how he will present it.”

You gave him a million shekels and you didn’t know? I asked

“Yes,” Schory said. “I feel sick to my stomach as it is about this screenplay, but we didn’t think he would actually say it like that.”

You must realize that if we see the release of a film, funded by the State of Israel, which compares the occupation to concentration camps, we need to shut you down immediately? I said.

“To be honest,” Schory said, “it’s completely clear to me.”

So? What are you going to do about it? I asked.

“What can I do?” he sighed. “We already gave him some of the money. We cannot take it back.”