let alone ANY film, given all the social problems there are in the country. Why is the government funding such garbage with public money while so many Jewish children are hungry? It goes to show that Israel's government and leadership cannot be trusted with money.

NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR BABY YYAAAAAAH!!!!! Now the world will see the truth. Stop your jealousy, if you didn't pursue your horrendous crimes against us, this film wouldn't have been made. Go and try to make an honest documentary from the Israeli perspective, all you can blame on us is suicide bombs, good luck making a 2hr film on that. Meanwhile we can talk about Occupation, Targeted Killings, Demolishing of homes, Dropping one-tonne bombs on crowded apartment buildings, Terrifying the population with sonic booms, Viciously attacking with Apache Helicoptors, Numerous of checkpoints where several women have given birth to a child that dies, Horrendous borders where students miss their university for "security" reasons, Dumping of sewage in our water, and Imposing curfews on entire towns. It's late at night but I can think of many more. Oh yeah, you can talk about those big peices of plastic called Qassams too, but you wouldn't want to mention the death toll, thousands more civillians; innocent women and children have died on the Palestinian side than Israeli.

Your afrikkin rabid terror sympathizer - at best. Let's not even discuss the other option.

Actually, an Israeli film has been made about terrorist murderers, and the innocent victims they kill. Maybe you should check out this link. Oh and by the way, just in case you decide to start ranting about how it is Zionist propoganda or didn't really happen, I can save you the time: This really happened dude. I know. I also knew the young woman whose body was ripped apart by your "seekers of freedom" against our horrible crimes. Did she have anything against Palestinians? Nope. In fact, I know she was actually sympathetic. Lot of good that did her. Here it is. Maybe it will open your eyes. Or not... http://www.lifeafterterror.org/blues.htm

"Palestine" is a myth!

No that didn't open my eyes because my eyes were already open to the subject, I know suicide bombs are terror and I know they're wrong and I sympathize with the victims. Unlike most on these boards who NEVER sympathize for victims of Israeli strikes and actions that take away the lives of many more civillians. Look, heres my thing, and you may disagree and I respect that, but to me, a suicide bomb that kills innocent civillians is no different then a woman losing her child after birth because a soldier didn't let her go to the hospital for "security" reasons. That's not security, she's pregnant, she's not a terrorist. And a suicide bomb is no different than a F-16 that drops a one-tonne bomb on a crowded apartment building to kill one terrorist meanwhile kills 14 others; mostly kids, and THEN claims they didn't aim at kids, well if it's a crowded building, and you drop a one-tonne bomb, you don't have to be a genius to know who's gonna die. The only difference, is that the Israelis have killed far more innocents than suicide bombs or Qassam rockets have. I hope you can at least understand where I'm coming from, even if you disagree.

You have nothing, I mean NOTHING, for which we would be jealous. Get serious. Furthrmore, any and all Israeli actions are the result of your suicide bombers, snipers, lynchers. You are full of crap, Mo. As to this movie, well, it goes to show how all the lefties and equivacators bend over backward to keep trying to find an explanation for your sickness. You are sick and the results of your election prove that your sickness is terminal.

Seriously, now. I'm not Fatima, Salima, or whatever other "Arab" names you dredge up from the depths of your Orientalist imaginations. At least I have the guts to post my name, unlike you anonymous posters. As for being labeled "evil" and a "terrorist sympathizer," why not throw in "anti-Semitic Nazi-film sympathizer who eats little children for breakfast" as well. Funny how it's so much easier to throw around terms like anti-Semitic and Nazi rather than offer a serious crtique of a film ... This would be comical if it anti-Semitism weren't a real threat. It is a threat, and crying wolf whenever you see something that offers a different perspective than your own is dangerous.

Put aside the question of occupation for a moment and look back in to the recent history, which started first, the suicide attacks or the Israeli attacks? The suicide bombing on bus 5 in Tel Aviv in 1996, what provoked that besides the political idea of Israel "occupying" the Palestinian land???

you expect people not to be racist when the one who really is, is you who wrote the article! you are the racist!

Irit Linor for that very good article! You totally got the point. @ Jan from Germany: It makes me angry to read such a posting by someone from Germany. How can you compare a singluar desaster that happend in a High School in Germany to the industry of suicide bomings in Israel? It goes to show that you don't know what you're writing about. And why don't you want to judge the movie? Because it would desturb your double standard way of thinking? Do you have an opinion about murder, yes or no? That movie is simply beyond all bearing! R.M., Berlin, Germany

Several responders have attempted to defend the Paleban / Palistan, perspective. However, the world clearly sees the Muslim perspective in their world-wide rioting and killing spree, insanely blaming Jews and Israel as the core conspirators behind cartoons that expose endemic Islamic hostility. There are better cartoons to do this (see www.netzarim.co.il/ConvCtr/ConvCtr.htm#Cartoon). The Arab and Muslim perspective toward Jews and Israel emanates from the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a misojudaic canard that Arabs and Muslims still disseminate widely on many websites. To nominate a movie based on the perspective of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion for an Oscar is misojudaic. So, they should now make a movie based on an anonymous submission that reached me several years ago: http://www.netzarim.co.il/Shared/Protocols of Learned Sheikhs of Jihad.htm - and nominate that for an Oscar! Paqid 16, The Netzarim Israeli Orthodox Jew www.netzarim.co.il Ra'anana, Israel

The URL given in the previous message for Protocols is correct if copied through "htm" but the resulting link produced in the message was faulty. Ergo, Protocols of the Learned Sheikhs of Jihad can be reached either by copying the entire link previously given or (hopefully) http://www.netzarim.co.il/Shared/Protocols-of-Learned-Sheikhs-of-Jihad.htm will work.

Dude, what the hell is Protocols of the Learned Sheikhs lol.. I'm Muslim, never ever ever heard of such things, I guess I'll check it out just out of curiosity, but I can tell you now that no Muslim I have ever met follows or has even heard of them.

Now let me get this straight. A picture glorifes the killing of innocent Jewish men, women, and children and attempts to humanize the suicide bombers. It repeats the age-old belief of a Jewish conspiracy to poison non-Jews. It encourages sympathy for those who are the tools of a depraved culture that want to destroy the Jewish State. Somehow, you don't think that is nazi-like? I have a question. What would a movie have to include to make you think that it similar to nazi propaganda?

We've certainly got her angle. In order to be considered Nazi-like it must be a film showing Israeli soldiers shooting rubber bullets at mania-driven rioters throwing firebombs and bricks at them.

If you log into www.imdb.com, the biggest movie database, you will be offered this tagline about the movie Paradise Now: from the most unexpected place, comes a bold new call for peace. What has happened between this tagline and Irit Linor's article is a striking example of how volatile and malicious a piece of art can be. Art is a spinning dreidel that either falls on Evil or Good, Hell or yes ... Paradise. "Paradise now" is among the Academy Awards nominees for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. This bothers me in many ways. You probably think I will spill out some well seasoned Israeli anger over the prospect of a Palestinian pretty movie winning yet another prestigious prize this year ... No I won't. Everybody else has done it better than I would. I am worried that when Rachel Weisz wins an Oscar for the best supporting role in The Constant Gardener, I won't rejoice over it - not as much as I would normally over an awesome actress playing her best role ever in an excellent and profound movie. I am worried that the prospective Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix will hail his award over his head , and I won't be happy for him, even though I have watched with delight and fascination each and every movie he played in. Maybe the Oscar awards don't mean to me anymore what they have meant to me for over thirty years. There were always politically correct considerations to the Oscars' distributions, let us not live in fantasy land, even in Hollywood. But when Adrien Brody won the Oscar this lady cried... And now I kind of feel cheated of my own tears and I want to take them back and say: how stupid, how stupid of me to have any trust in the Oscar Academy.

http://www.pierrerehov.com

@ R.M. you probably won't read it, still, your post deserves an answer. I know what I am talking about - I have been in Israel long enough and witnessed one of these bombings. Still - I do not want to talk about the film because it does not change a thing. It certainly does not deserve an Oscar - but not, because it is biased or because it is biased towards the Palestinian perspective. Actually, I view this film from a similar perspective like many other Palestinian or Israeli comments regarding this conflict - it is propaganda. But - and this is my point: Many of those who comment here are even more biased. They dehumanize other because they do not share their point of view. They speak of anti-Semitism because the word itself is a weapon - but they have no clue what anti-Semitism really means - they have now idea about the way a concentration camp really feels like, even up to today . But they have an opinion and everyone who does not share it can be persecuted - in one way or the other. And I have an opinion about murder, yes: murder is all the same. it is not made better bcause it is done by Palestinians, Israelis or Germans. It is not made better because one has a reason to kill or not. There are many Palestinian AND Israelis murderers in this conflict - go out and get THEM! What is about the settlers who occupy Palestinian lands and kill others defending their rights, supported by the Israeli government (at least for a long time) Are they really better than the industry of bombing? When MO asked his questions, he was simply put down, as if nobody wanted to hear - or was satisfied to find a reason to blame "the Palestinians" for it (bombing of bus 5 in Tel Aviv) - "the Palestinians" - "the Jews" - "the Americans" - "the Germans" - I am fucking sick of this bullshit. I cannot and I never will blame anyone who is part of this conflict. But start questioning yourselves!

When this movie won at the Golden Globes, I gagged. I gagged for many reasons, most of which were stated in this article, but also because there is not Palestine so how can the movie call Palestine it's country and win for a country that does not exist? Today, I showed this article to a friend who is neither Pro-Israeli nor Pro-Palestinian. He was interested in seeing the movie and thought this article was biased. We got to talking and I asked how any article, either way, could not be biased, either way. He said he didn't understand how Jewish people who had been oppressed couldn't give land to other people who are oppressed. I don't think anyone understands that Jews and Muslims did not start this war. It was the Christians. Yes, really. The ones who just want peace. Well, they weren't aiming for peace when they attacked the then-Muslim capital of Jerusalem. Their main objective was for Christian rule in the Holy Land. For a Cross to replace the Crescent. This went on and on and on until World War One, when the British finally seized control of Jerusalem and what was then called Palestine. After World War Two, no one wnted Jewish refugees, especially Britain and the US. So they asked the refugees if they'd like to have a homeland. Quite frankly, the Jewish refugees thought of Europe as their home until the nazis told them otherwise. But many opted to go. Little did they know the British and Americans would abandon them there with the understandably angry Muslims who also lived there. And then there was a war for Temple Mount. Because we all must know that this comes down to Temple Mount. Jerusalem is the most holy city the Jews. What is even holier to them is the Western Wall. But there's a mosque that cannot be torn down on Temple Mount. And a great lot of Americans who belong to the Christian Right believe Jesus won't come back until the Third Temple is built. But the Third Temple cannot be built because there is a mosque on Temple Mount. In short, who is to blame for the very current suicide bombings and the very distant Crusades? The Christians. When will anyone catch on to this? P.S. Sarah is a name of the world, but most Jews (like me) spell it with an H because that stands for the Breath of G-d, which is why Sarai changed her name to Sarah in the first place. It was also my grandmother's name. She survived the Holocaust.

I'm very, very far away from the Israel-Palestinian conflict and I only got to this article due to a link in the IMDB site. And I am really impressed! How arrogant, self-centered and narrow-minded can a person be? When I watched the movie, I immediatelly percieved that it has much more to do with the way the palestinians see the world now, than to any anti-semitic message. But now, reading this article in the "culture" section of an israeli site, I start to change my mind. Will I also be declared anti-semitic now (or Nazi)??

Sara....you are a good one... :) keep it up...they will never see us as humans...its like hitler could not see them as humans(and that was wrong, we are all humans)...how the world turns around....I guess it is our turn...?

U dont even have a name..what are you afraid of...Sara, Fatima or whoever she is can talk all she wants....

Remember...1948...you stole land from innocent people....PALESTINIANS....wether Paradise Now wins nor not....alot of people see whats going on and it just a matter of time when the REAL israel and its propaganda machine is exposed for its bullshit...

Brasil......becareful when you say anything against a jew or Israel....you be slapped with the ANTI-SMETIC label that will stick with you till you die...and not only that....Brasil soccer will be banned from all countries that support Israel....you are lucky you are far away....