By Michael Regenstreif
Although Ottawa’s Free Thinking Film Society – spearheaded by Fred Litwin – is best known for showing films from conservative perspectives, there were a number of films at the second annual Free Thinking Film Festival, held earlier this month at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre, which were equally from centrist or liberal viewpoints.
Two of those films were particularly impressive and I highly recommend them.
The Making of a Martyr, released in 2005, is a powerful examination of how vulnerable children are recruited and brainwashed by terrorist organizations to martyr themselves as suicide bombers.
In particular, the film focuses on the story of Hussam Abdu, a 14-year-old would-be Palestinian suicide bomber who ended up with a long sentence in an Israeli prison rather than enjoying the 72 virgins his Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade handlers had promised him when Israeli soldiers intercepted him at a West Bank checkpoint with 18 pounds of explosives strapped to his small body.
The film opens with news footage from the incident. Brooke Goldstein, the documentary’s director – then a Toronto law student on track to a career in entertainment law – interviewed the boy twice in prison for the film. She and her small crew also travelled far into Palestinian territory and interviewed, among others, members of his family and leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. There is a deep examination of the conditions that give rise to such forms of terrorism.
Goldstein – now a New York-based human rights lawyer particularly concerned with the exploitation of children for terrorism – spoke after the screening. She made a compelling case that such children are themselves among the victims of the terrorist masters who recruit them.
Goldstein was one of the most powerful speakers I’ve heard recently. I hope she returns to Ottawa and is heard by a wider audience.
The other film I want to draw to your attention is Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization, a new documentary by director Gloria Greenfield. It examines antisemitism in both historical and contemporary contexts via talking-heads commentaries by a most impressive collection of activists, academics and political leaders.
The doc was shot at various locations around the world, including Ottawa during the 2010 Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism conference, and demonstrates how legitimate criticism of specific Israeli government policies is differentiated from thinly disguised antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.
This is a film that should be seen by wider audiences.
After the screening, Greenfield spoke briefly about why she made Unmasked and introduced one of the experts featured in the film, MP Irwin Cotler – a former justice minister, McGill University law professor and one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers – who delivered a brief talk about the consequences of contemporary antisemitism.
Addendum: Israeli scientists
Last issue I wrote about a reception I attended that Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv hosted in honour of two scientists, Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who were in Canada to receive the Canada Gairdner International Award, this country’s most important award for medical research.
I neglected to mention that another of Israel’s most distinguished medical researchers, Michael Sela, of the Weizmann Institute’s department of immunology, was also honoured at the reception. Sela, still vitally active at Weizmann at the age of 87, received the Canada Gairdner International Award in 1980. He also has a long list of other international awards received over a 50-year period, further testament to Israel’s remarkable record of achievement in areas that benefit all of humankind.
Welcome Jason Moscovitz
I’m very pleased to welcome Jason Moscovitz to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin as our new page 7 columnist. His first column for us is in the space below. Although he’s been out of the media spotlight for the past decade, Jason is well remembered as one of Canada’s best broadcast journalists, particularly for his years on Parliament Hill as the CBC’s always insightful chief political correspondent.
People have been asking me over the past couple of weeks who our new page 7 columnist will be and have reacted with enthusiasm and excitement when I’ve told them who it is. I know I’m not alone in looking forward to reading Jason’s reflections on whatever topics strike his fancy.
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