... and there is no reason for Israeli taxpayers to fund this guy. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, "boo hoo."

This „Specialist“ nonsense needs to be settled decisively. Here is just one example from each main level of deception. More available (in English) in "Filmische Gedaechtnisse" (Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna). 1. The film itself. Prosecutor Gideon Hausner's bloodthirsty villification of Eichmann culminates in his call for the death penalty. It seems extreme for an opening address, which is how Sivan explicitly identifies it. The reason it sounds like Eichmann is already guilty is simple: the only coherent parts of Hausner's "opening" address actually come from his summing-up, after the court had heard the evidence. The scene sets the stage for the way in which the whole film essentially reverses the real trial. If watching the film doesn't convince you of the blame-shifting going on, take a look at what is explicitly said in the "interview with the authors" on the DVD edition. The speaker in both cases is not Sivan, but his accomplice in deception, Rony Brauman (lest we forget, former president of Doctors Without Borders). On the Jews' responsibility for their own deaths: "... no Nazi ever pushed anyone into the gas chambers. It was all terrifyingly self-administered." On Eichmann himself, Brauman is just as clear: "... it's almost unthinkable to absolve him as someone who merely obeyed orders." Without the "almost" in there, it would really be impossible to absolve him and we can't have that, can we? 2. Sivan's denial of intention to deceive. That lost all plausibility the moment he labelled my catching him out fabricating an exchange between Gabriel Bach and Pinchas Freudiger "an outright lie." In reality, the exchange described Eichmann in the worst possible light, jack-booted, uniformed, armed and bellowing. Sivan removed that and replaced it with "reassuring." The German TV magazine "Kulturzeit" broadcast the comparison and followed it with the announcement that the Adolf Grimme Institute was going to investigate whether the prize it had given Sivan for "The Specialist" as a "documentation" should be revoked. Last I heard, the decision had been held up by personnel changes. 3. Sivan's claims about his technical work on the film. Sivan has claimed that all reflections seen on Eichmann's glass booth in "The Specialist" were digitally created for the film and did not exist in the original tapes. Nonsense; the originals are brimming with reflections for which Sivan has plagiaristically arrogated creative responsibility. He did indeed create some reflections digitally; many belong to that large group intended to (falsely) convince the audience that Eichmann's reactions as seen in any given scene in "The Specialist" are the ones belonging to that part of the trial. 4. Sivan's version of the prior history of the original trial recordings.The funniest (if that's the word) of his inventions on this level of deception is the oft-repeated claim that the Spielberg Archive neglected the tapes for 33 years. He has used this as his mega-argument-killer when things get too hot for him in an interview situation. If his claim that the Spielberg Archive got the tapes in 1977 is true (it isn't), then the Archive would somehow have to neglect the tapes until the year 2010 (if it wished to accomodate his claim). This will be difficult to do, because the tapes were digitally preserved in the mid-90s in a joint project with the State Archive, with no help whatsoever from Eyal Sivan (he habitually takes credit for that, too). Former State Archivist Evyatar Friesel long ago set the record straight about that in the Hebrew press, but it seems to have been buried by the sheer weight of what Sivan's defamation machine churns out. Why is his politics an issue instead of his honesty? R.S.H. Tryster (former Director, Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive), Berlin

and talented misguided Jew!

Mr. Sivan's has the audacity to tell so many lies. He did sign the boycott menifest, which means he supports the fight of anti-israeli groups and private ppl. against the very own ppl. He suppose to be teaching and get his salary from. This country is definitly fucked up but not due to his diagnosis about the israeli army ... ohh no .... more due to the fact that a twisted fuck like him is still alowd to teach students. He claims to be a documentarist? Hell ... more like a mocumentarist. delusional fascist.

They have all the media, all the nukes, all the lobbies, all the Congress, all the money and all the rabbis. And they are worried about Neturei Karta or Eyal Sivan. Give me a break.........Zionists are insecure neurotics because they know their "State" is built on the bodies of the Palestinians......

I'm glad some people at Sapir have the guts to speak out, even if anonymously. I had already heard from people there about the power-base Sivan established as soon as he arrived and how he uses it. My informants insisted on anonymity, too, and gave me the impression that they feared their criticism of him becoming known to the administration, although they were (discreetly) outspoken in feeling that his employment was an utter disgrace. You don't happen to know who it was who verbally attacked me after my January lecture on Sivan's film in Beersheva, identifying himself only as a historian at Sapir, do you? I'd like to name him in a piece I'm currently writing. Thanks.

Simple answer. To the Left it is one stacked with their ideological clones. So Nachum Barnea, Shulamit Aloni and Sivan are given the "red carpet". People who don't conform with the politburo need not apply and have no recourse. What does the public have to say about these things anyway. Let the "professionals" decide. Those closest to the table are best able to judge the banquet.

When one thinks about it zionism is very strong: 1) militarily: It can wipe the entire middle-east off the map in a matter of minutes, without sustaining a scratch. 2) economically: it is second to none. 3) diplomatically: it has the best of allies. And zionism is indispensible to the the allies for various reasons. But yet it feels "threatened" by arabs/muslims, anti-semites, anti-zionists (especially "ultra-orthodox" Jewish), non-zionists, etc. I honestly cannot figure out why? But what is most tragic is the level of Jew-on-Jew hatred that this insecurity breeds, in that zionism as a political movement has no "room" for Jews who do not share its views on moral or religious grounds and such people must be discredited. This intra-necine hatred is the real threat and it appears to be spreading. It has even reached into the zionist camp, with different groups turning on each other and blaming the other for the challenges the movement faces. It is the fault of the "rightist", the "leftists", the "religious zionists", the "settlers" or the "secular". But very few scrutinize the ideology of zionism itself, rather than casting blame. Those who do make this scrutiny suddenly become "leftists traitors" or "NK". I hope all Jews will come together and find that very ancient connection, and work out a common future for the Jewish people together through proper logical debate, which has been the Jewish way.

they always appreciate the Jews who are critical or hateful of other Jews. This man speaks for nobody. TheJews have outlived their enemies and we will also outlive the Jewish anti-Semites like him. It is just another test or challenge that we would need to overcome.

Two peas in a pod...no wonder Abdullah and his ilk like them both so. Perhaps Sivan can get work with Ahmadinutjobi in Iran!

I am french.io live here.i read Sivan regularly on the media.he his one of the worse antisemite anti israeli jew that we have.and of course, immediatly , what he says is used endlessly in the left and extreme left media, in the propal webb sites, as a revealed truth.and his friends, Warshawski, Braumann , Cypel , are the same. Enough masochism.it's a madness to give a cent to these enemy of the jewish people. send then rather to a psychanalist.

I would like to see him a victim of Palestinean terror and how quick he would change his thoughts.

#3-i applaud your guts in identifying yourself and for speaking out the truth!!! #5-couldnt have said it better myself-and if i would have-they sensor me here all the time so it wouldnt have been published....

In "a Specialist",Sivan pointed out the murderous role of jewish collaborators in the holocaust, and simultaneously quoted the french Jews for double allegiance, a typical antisemitic argument, for not approving France's "arab policy". According to his own logic, it is urgent to wipe out the traitors, specially those earning their profits from antisemitic slur (antizionism is only a politically correct fiction). He remembers a bullet warning "next one will not be mailed". Such a schnorrer does not deserve my taxmoney, otherwise I may consider yerida.

I don't know the man and if he is an anti-Zionist and a Palestinian at heart, well I would rather keep my blood pressure in line than lose my rag at him. Be that as it may, he is entitled to express his opinion. Why is he any different from those Jewish Leftist politicians who stood with the Arabs and condemned our country during the last War? Maybe his will get support from those Haredim who side with Iran in its quest for the destruction of Israel. The bottom line is that Israel is a democracy and we can express our opinions. If we did not have this right then the Winograd Commission would never have dared to say what it did on Monday.

He produces another yellow star for us to wear .... and expects us to pay for it!

The post zionists counterattack. We Israelis have every right to fight attempts to demonize and deligitimize our country.

in particular, on how to deal with traitors.

he is free to say whatever he likes. What I DO object to is that he receives money from Israeli institutions and is given a quasi-stamp of authenticity to his views by the same institutions. If he wants to spread lies about Israel then there are plenty of other sources he can tap.

I think you might be a bit "off' concidering the information u got regarding Sivan. He's a walking joke at the filming department. As for the fear of criticism ... I don't share the feeling of the students u've been talking to. Sapir ... inspite of it's tendency to pamper every left-wing extremist fucktard and islamofascist, also encourages the activism and political views of other sides. As for my anonimity ... well, I find the loathing face I put on every time I see sivan around (and the information i provide to ppl. that never came across sivan's manipulation before), much more affective .... i never sign my name ... nowhere. as for the absent verbal-diarrhea mistery-man (what did he say anyway?)... maybe Sivan sent his alter to do the dirty work for him ... after all ... he is, a spineless prat. sorry I couldn't help SC

Thanks, SC. My assailant launched into a non-stop harangue in which he claimed it must all be personal, he knows the thesis is correct regardless of whether the facts fit, as a historian he always uses out-of-context snippets and unless I could prove Sivan was a Holocaust-denier I should keep my mouth shut. He ignored my insistence that his points weren't relevant to my presentation and then came out with something very strange, the gist of which seemed to be that Hannah Arendt, by removing so much personal responsibility from Eichmann, was laying the guilt on the entire German people, which means that if I have a problem with a film based on her, it must mean that my real agenda can only be exonerating the German people of responsibility for the Holocaust. Whoever he is, he is certainly someone Sapir should be ashamed of having on staff. If you want more of the lowdown, check out what I posted on Eli Eshed's site. Keep up the bad faces and the good work; he will eventually run out of places to go where he hasn't been found out.

Well, reading what happened, that doesn't suprises me ... Every time those propaganders are asked to base their words, they tend to change the course of the subject and get offensive. What troubles me the most are the sorts of Sivan, who seem to like the "outcasts" image they believe they carry, while in reality it's the Israelis that get ostracize by ignorant bigots. I'll be checking the site, thank u

SC, I shall be in touch. Copies of the proofs of what Sivan has done and said should be made easily available at Sapir, even if they have to circulate unofficially. I am still reacting here for now, so that others may read what your last post brought to mind. In the interview with the filmmakers on the DVD of "The Specialist," Rony Brauman, trying to pretend that the special effects are what one might find harms the film's authenticity, says "... we only have to look back to the last century to see that almost every modern-day tyranny exploited images which used no special effects except for editing and established its power on the power of the image." In my 33-page expose of the deceptions published in an anthology in Vienna this January, I respond by saying "The statement is a double diversion, for it is not the special effects department that The Specialist uses to tell its biggest lies; it is precisely the unobtrusive and undetectable editing that works most convincingly because it goes unnoticed. By concentrating on the truth of the image, Brauman diverts from the question of the sequence of images, the means by which they can make statements that are either true or false... The things in The Specialist that are most false are those Sivan works most concertedly to prevent us doubting. That is precisely the tyranny Brauman was describing." I could now say "I rest my case," but I have no intention of letting it rest yet.