Wiesenthal Center Condemns Ban Against Israeli Film on Disabled Children

August 19, 2015

 
The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemns the anti-Semitic action of the sponsors of the Oslo Documentary Cinema, “Human Rights Human Wrongs” for rejecting a film about disabled children produced by Israeli, Roy Zafrani, merely because the organizers are supporters of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (BDS), even though the film was not sponsored or supported by the Israeli government, but financed entirely by Mr. Zafrani.
 
“As a film maker and a member of the Academy®, this blatant kind of anti-Semitism should be condemned by both the government of Norway and by filmmakers around the world, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC Founder and Dean and two-time Academy® Award winner.
 
“The fact that the Festival founder, Ketil Magnussen explains his reasoning as, ‘We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel’ - better known as BDS, the alphabetic equivalent of anti-Semitism - is even more outrageous and only confirms our suspicion that this action, pure and simple is nothing but an act of Jew-hatred. To compare the Middle East’s only democracy, the State of Israel with apartheid South Africa is like comparing Mother Teresa to Mata Hari," Rabbi Hier added.
 
In a related development American Jewish singer Matisyahu was disinvited from a Spanish music festival because he would not publicly endorse Palestinian statehood. He was later reinvited after protests from the Wiesenthal Center and others.
 
The BDS movement is a worldwide campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).