“This well-constructed piece of anti-Israel propaganda ought not to offend any partisan of the Israeli cause.

For three reasons: In the first place because the very existence of this film is proof that Israel is a vibrant democracy with nothing to hide.

Secondly, because, if, after some two years of shooting-with many hundreds of hours of film to choose from-the most damning footage that the editors could come up with is a few minutes showing a young Israeli mouthing off…then there is little enough to get excited about. (Think about the fact that whereas this bigoted young man is speaking only for himself, the charters of both Hamas and the PA, calling for Israel’s destruction, are explicitly antisemitic.)

Thirdly, one should be all in favor of this sort of documentary/muck-raking cinematography because it sets a standard for openness and self-reflection that ought to be practiced by both sides of the conflict. Indeed, where are the Palestinian documentary films that show the explosive-vest suicide factories and the Qassam rocket factories that fuel the “armed resistance”? (And which the checkpoints effectively interdict.)

Where is the intrepid Palestinian film-maker who has the moral courage to document the ugly facts of indoctrination in Palestinian kindergartens, where infants are trained to aspire to glorious death as shaheeds [martyrs]? Until such documentary films are made by Palestinians, it is evident that the Israelis are the ones with a moral conscience, however sometimes misplaced.

But above all, the film not only omits to mention the hundreds of deaths due to suicide terrorism, but also that the Palestinians have only their own intransigent governmental policies and the continued use of terrorism to thank for their indignities.”-Concordia University’s Prof. David Pariser, in opening remarks Tuesday, at the University of Ottawa’s screening of the anti-Israel film Checkpoint. Prof. Pariser led a group of Canadian Institute for Jewish Research “Student Israel-Advocacy Seminars” students, to Ottawa to fight back against the anti-Israel programming on Ottawa University’s campus. Prof. Pariser and the students also spoke out later that night at a lecture given by notorious Israel-basher Norman Finkelstein. CIJR and its students will also be responding to Montreal’s Israel Apartheid Week, when it gets underway at Concordia University on Thursday.