The furor over the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to cast a cinematic spotlight on Tel Aviv continued Thursday, as Academy Award-winner Rabbi Marvin Hier condemned the "shocking" uproar at a press conference in Toronto just hours before the festival kick-off.
Rabbi Hier, filmmaker and founder of Canadian-based Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies where he spoke, said the so-called "Toronto Declaration" — which now has roughly 1000 signatories, including celebrities Jane Fonda, Danny Glover and Naomi Klein — is slanderous to Israel and an international embarrassment.
The declaration emerged last week after Toronto filmmaker John Greyson initiated the protest by pulling his film "Covered" from the festival, saying TIFF has “become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine” by ignoring the “realities of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”
“These words sound like those of President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who calls Israel a rogue state,” said Rabbi Hier, who arrived in Toronto Thursday morning after attending a dinner in Washington hosted by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. “It’s unbelievable that Israel has to listen to such nonsense.”
The festival program said the inaugural City to City series celebrates Tel Aviv’s diversity, but the protestor’s declaration says the emphasis on diversity is “empty given the absence of Palestinian filmmakers in the program.”
Speaking from a conference room called the Tolerance Training Centre, Rabbi Hier said he is especially “embarrassed” by the Jewish contingent of signatories whom he said have “forgotten the lessons of history and represent only a small minority.”
The declaration includes endorsements by several Israeli filmmakers, as well as Palestinian-Israeli director Elia Sulieman – who will not, however, withdraw his film, "The Time that Remains."
Meanwhile, two high-profile Canadian filmmakers, producer Robert Lantos and documentarian Simcha Jacobvici, have weighed in with their support for TIFF.
Rabbi Hier, who was also in the city to promote the release of his latest film, "Winston Churchill: Walking With Destiny," said Tel Aviv was a suitable choice for the series because it is “one of the freest cities in the world.”
“What is so wrong with recognizing the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv? Why is that a sin?” he said. “The signatories are people who are always looking to criticize Israel, as if Israel can’t do anything right.”
Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of Toronto’s Simon Wiesenthal Center, also spoke at Thursday morning’s press conference and said he applauds TIFF for its reaction to what he called an “unfortunate” protest. “We are trying to equip the public with the truth, rather than a script that the likes of Naomi Klein has put forward,” he said.
Protestors have also questioned whether the program’s spotlight on Tel Aviv is connected with the Israeli government’s “˜Brand Israel’ media and advertising campaign, which was launched in 2008.
“The City to City series was conceived and curated entirely independently,” said festival co-director Cameron Bailey in an Aug. 28 open letter on the TIFF website. “There was no pressure from any outside source.”
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