Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Israeli Arab Actor Targeted by Right-Wing Campaign

Crossposted from Haaretz

Image by Alina Dekel

In a normal — not to say ideal — country, discussion of a production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba” would deal with the production’s artistic merits. But we are not living in a normal country, and so before I discuss the artistic values of this production at Tel Aviv’s Tzavta venue, I have no alternative but to set forth the background to this production.

Israeli-Arab actor Mohammed Bakri produced a film, ostensibly a documentary, about Israel Defense Forces action in the Jenin refugee camp during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. “Jenin Jenin” (which I haven’t seen ) apparently depicts IDF soldiers as war criminals. The Israel Film Council’s censorship board banned its screening. Bakri petitioned the High Court of Justice, which revoked the board’s decision on the grounds that “freedom of expression is a central value of the democratic system. In order to impinge on it, it is necessary to show that there is a definite danger of damage to public order. It is not evident that this applies in this case.”

Read more at Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.