Defamation – The movie

Israeli film director Yoav Shamir in his movie ‘Defamation’ ( a brief trailer below) like Dr. Norman Finkelstein demonstrated in his book ‘The Holocaust Industry’ that the Holocaust has been used cynically to justify Israeli expansionism and genocide of Palestinians and Lebanese civilians. Yoav Shamir admits in the movie that he never experienced anti-Semitism personally. However, his 92-year-old grandmother sounds very much ‘anti-Semite’ based on Abraham Foxman’s definition of the phrase, when she claims Jews abroad are really lazy and make money off others so they don’t have to work.

The movie tackle several interpretations of ‘anti-Semitism’, such as; Is criticizing Zionism is anti-Semitism? Is anti-Semitism a global problem? and Has Holocaust become the new Jewish religion? Shamir has brought to the screen the views of Jewish activists such as Abraham Foxman, the national director of pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League (ADL), famous academic, professor Norman Finkelstein who showed great personal admiration for Lebanese Islamic resistance Hizb’Allah and Israeli writer Uri Avnery.

Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born Jew who participated in Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, in his review of the movie Defamation, wrote:

The film is an astonishing exposure of the morbid conditions that entangle contemporary Jewish secular identity. It explores and ridicules the current notion of anti Semitism and the lobbies that are engaged in disseminating such a fear. It also exposes those Jewish ethnic campaigners who, for some reason, insist on shaping their identity around the phantasmic idea of being ‘racially’ chased, defamed or hated.

Being an Israeli, Yoav Shamir, the man behind the film,  has managed to infiltrate into Abe Foxman’s ADL. He even managed to join  Foxman’s ‘international mission’. Shamir also followed an Israeli high school expedition to Auschwitz. He provides us with some intimate footage of Israeli youth being indoctrinated into collective anxiety and total neurosis just before they join the IDF.

The general image we are left with is no less than  grotesque. The film elaborates on the aggressive vulgar  orchestrated amplification of fear amongst Israelis and Zionist Jews. “We are raised to believe that we are hated” says an Israeli high school girl on her way to a concentration camp. “ADL provide us with a platform to be Jewish”, says an American elder Jewish woman.

Shamir provides us with an opportunity to see how badly young Israelis behave once in Poland. You watch their contempt to the local population and disrespect to Polish people and institutes. You can also watch Israelis project their hatred onto others. For some reason they are convinced that everyone out there is as merciless as they happen to be.   The Israeli youngsters are saturated with fear, yet, they are having a good time, you can watch them having a party dancing in a bus all the way to a Auschwitz. You can see them munching  crisps while watching a Musleman*  prisoners drinking his watered-down soup.

Shamir provides us with some unusual pictures of Abe Foxman mixing with world leaders. Proudly the ADL leader is insisting on selling his favourite product. Shamir presents the ADL’s deal in some very plain words. “We (the ADL) will be your allies in the American Congress, all we need in return is you fighting anti Semitism along with us”. Shamir realises that if Foxman and the ADL can guarantee a free pass to the American corridors of power, then the ‘anti Semitic’ message explored by the ‘Protocols of the Elders Of Zion’ is rather relevant and should be discussed in the open.

Interestingly enough, in the film, it is the orthodox Jews who defy the cry for anti Semitism. It is a Rabbi who argues that Abe Foxman creates anti Semitism “because he needs a job”. Another Rabbi argues that unlike orthodox Jews who intrinsically associate their Jewishness with Judaism, the cry for anti Semitism is a Jewish secular phenomenon that satisfies the secular Jew’s craving for identity. This indeed makes a lot of sense, once you take Judaism from the Jew all you are left with is ‘chicken soup’ and ‘anti Semitism’. Foxman had to choose whether to open a kosher delicatessen or chasing anti Semites. He clearly has chosen the latter.  He and his crypto Zionists within the left and the media are making a career amplifying the fear of being chased.    

Unlike Uri Avneri and Norman Finkelstein who appear in the film and argue that anti Semitism is exaggerated, I actually believe that resentment towards Jewish politics is rising rapidly and constantly. However, I do differentiate between the Judeo centric notion of anti Semitism and political resentment towards Jewish ideology. I do not regard anti Jewish activity as a form of anti-Semitism or racial hatred for Jews are neither Semites nor do they form a racial continuum whatsoever.

The rise of hatred towards any form of Jewish politics and Jewish lobbies is a reaction towards a tribal, chauvinist and supremacist ideology. If political Jews whether Zionist or ‘Jewish anti Zionists’ are concerned with themselves losing popularity, all they need to do, is to learn to look in the mirror. Self-reflection is liberation as long as one is courageous enough to face the truth.