EuroPalestine, a group that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, praised the country for seemingly doing its job for it: “Boycott the Israeli film festival in Paris? Israel’s doing it,” the group wrote in a press release.
The strange message came after the Israeli film festival in Paris said it is determined to screen “Foxtrot” on opening night despite the protest by Culture Minister Miri Regev against a movie she says slanders the Israeli army.
This week, Regev told Haaretz that she would not “support a festival that showcases films that slander us throughout the world and contains false content about IDF soldiers and its citizens.”
The pro-BDS group latched on to Regev’s statement, saying “Miri Regev is conducting a war against Israeli artists […] and she didn’t even see the movie.”
Pas besoin de BDS.. Miri Regev la ministre israélienne de la culture pas mauvaise dans le boycott.. Elle exige de l’ambassade d’Israël à Paris qu’elle donne pas de budget au festival du film israélien. Motif: Regev déteste le film Foxtrot qui doit ouvrir le festival
“Foxtrot” focuses on the life of a family – two parents and their daughter – who live in Tel Aviv, while their son, a solider, is killed early in the film.
Charles Enderlin, a prominent French journalist who has covered Israel for years, tweeted: “There’s no need for BDS, Israel’s culture minister Miri Regev is not bad at boycotting.”
BDS Geneva, the Swiss branch of the BDS movement, responded, writing that unlike Regev, BDS “doesn’t boycott movies or other cultural works based on their content.”
‘I love the movie’
Meanwhile, the festival’s organizers said they had no intention of backing down from screening the film. “I really love the movie. I don’t see anything against Israel whatever,” the festival’s director, Hélène Schoumann, told Haaretz on Monday. “So I won’t cancel it; of course not.”
Two months ago, the culture representative at the Israeli Embassy in Paris asked Schoumann to consider changing the festival’s opener.
“She asked me very tactfully,” Schoumann said. ‘She said ‘you know, maybe, it’s a movie, maybe you can use another one.’ … And I said no. I don’t understand why she’s focusing on only one movie. You know the festival is showing around 35 movies, with documentaries, features.”
The festival has existed for 18 years, and in previous years boycott, divestment and sanction supporters showed up to demonstrate against it.
“Foxtrot” will be shown three times during the festival, which ends March 20. The screening on opening night March 13 will be attended by director Samuel Maoz.
“The damage that could be caused was prevented this time,” Maoz said, praising the festival’s management. In a Hebrew-language Facebook post Monday, Maoz wrote that Schoumann “didn’t blink despite another crazy attempt to undermine freedom of creativity,” thereby preventing the serious financial damage that such a step could have caused Israeli cinema.
In his Facebook post, Maoz said that of all the countries that invest money in helping produce Israeli films, France and Germany invest the most. He said this funding, which was crucial for the survival of Israeli cinema, was now at risk.
“The Israeli film festival in Paris is an important platform for promoting and marketing Israeli art in France, and it attracts the leading distributors, investors, producers and journalists,” Maoz wrote. “France is the greatest consumer of Israeli cinema in Europe, and together with Germany is also the most generous co-producer. The [Israeli] Foreign Ministry gives the festival token support of 8,000 euros a year, and in return Israel receives several millions that our films about us use.”
Maoz said the “ridiculous” Israeli culture budget needed this support “because without it our films won’t be able to get off the ground. But the damage that could have been caused was prevented this time thanks to Hélène Schoumann, the festival director, who withstood the pressure and didn’t compromise on her right and obligation to shape the festival’s image in a way that effectively reflects the past year’s crop.”
On Monday, the French media reported on the government’s attempt to interfere with the festival, mentioning Bin-Noun’s decision to boycott the opening, Regev’s threat and the festival’s refusal to cave.