Vienna cinema censors film about Palestinian football

Ali Abunimah Activism and BDS Beat 5 September 2019

Large group of people stands in front of building

Activists in Vienna protest outside the Artis International cinema, which canceled the showing of a film about Palestinian football. (via Facebook)

Activists are expressing outrage after a cinema in Vienna canceled the Austrian premiere of a film about Palestinian football.

Meanwhile in Canada, campaigners are protesting a decision by the ruling Liberal Party to drop a parliamentary candidate based on false allegations of anti-Semitism.

BDS Austria, a group that supports the campaign to boycott Israel for its violations of Palestinian rights, says the cancellation of the screening of ¡Yallah! ¡Yallah! is censorship.

Directed by Cristian Pirovano and Fernando Romanazzo, the 2017 feature is an Argentinian-Palestinian co-production that tells the stories of seven Palestinians through their connection to football.

The screening was supposed to take place at the Artis International cinema on Tuesday followed by a discussion with Pirovano, who is on a European tour. The film has been screened in dozens of cities worldwide.

Co-director Pirovano condemned the censorship:

“The last-minute cancellation of the film screening by Artis cinema, which belongs to Cineplexx Ltd., the largest cinema operator in Austria, is unlawful and unacceptable,” BDS Austria said.

According to the group, the cinema claimed that “in recent days we increasingly received information and messages which pointed out the politically controversial statement not so much of the film as such, but of the movement supported by BDS.”

BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions, a campaign started by Palestinians and modeled on the global solidarity movement that helped end apartheid in South Africa.

The goals of BDS are to pressure Israel to obey international law by ending military occupation of Palestinian land, abolishing all forms of discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel and respecting the rights of Palestinian refugees to go back home.

But in 2018, the Vienna city council adopted a resolution calling for non-cooperation with the BDS movement and smearing it as anti-Semitic.

BDS Austria says that Artis cited this resolution as its pretext for banning the screening.

The group accuses the city of enacting “unreasonable and disproportionate restriction on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly” and of “organized and institutional racism.”

Activists protested outside the Artis cinema following the cancellation of ¡Yallah! ¡Yallah!.

You can watch the trailer for the film (click the “cc” button to select subtitles in English and other languages):

Draconian censorship

This incident vindicates fears that the adoption of highly politicized definitions of anti-Semitism pushed by Israel and its lobby encourages draconian censorship.

Israel and its allies are pressing for institutional adoption of the so-called IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which conflates criticism of Israel’s racist policies and practices, on the one hand, with anti-Jewish bigotry, on the other.

Austria, a member of the European Union which purports to uphold freedom of speech as a fundamental right, is increasingly hostile territory for free expression.

In March, even the left-wing Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Vienna banned BDS Austria.

The same month, Vienna’s Volkskundemuseum, under pressure from Israel lobby groups, canceled an event on Palestinian rights where Ronnie Kasrils was scheduled to speak.

Kasrils is an anti-apartheid veteran and former minister in Nelson Mandela’s government.

Last year, the University of Vienna bowed to pressure from Austria’s Israel lobby and banned a public lecture by a veteran Black American activist.

And in 2017, a hotel in Vienna canceled a presentation by a human rights lawyer after intimidation by anti-Palestinian activists.

Canadian candidate smeared as anti-Semitic

Last week, Canada’s ruling Liberal Party dropped Hassan Guillet as a candidate in a Quebec constituency in the country’s October general election.

This came after Israel lobby group B’nai Brith Canada accused Guillet of posting anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements online.

But Independent Jewish Voices Canada is outraged at the decision.

“Upon examination of the facts, it is evident to us that Guillet is anything but an anti-Semite,” IJV national coordinator Corey Balsam said.

“What is abundantly clear is that Guillet has been targeted on account of his vocal criticism of Israel and its policies.”

B’nai Brith Canada accused Guillet of congratulating Raed Salah upon his release from a “prison of occupied Palestine” and wishing for the liberation of “all of Palestine.”

Salah is a prominent leader among Palestinian citizens of Israel. He has faced prison in Israel repeatedly for his political activities.

In 2011, UK authorities ordered Salah deported based on bogus allegations of anti-Semitism from an Israel lobby group in that country.

After a 10-month legal battle, Salah was completely vindicated as a court upheld his appeal against the deportation “on all grounds.”

On the day after Israel massacred dozens of unarmed protesters in Gaza in May 2018, B’nai Brith Canada promoted the racist smear that Palestinians deliberately send their children to die merely for the sake of a “photo-op” that would embarrass Israel.

Yet the group purports to be fighting bigotry.

Independent Jewish Voices Canada slammed B’nai Brith for citing the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism that was recently adopted by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Global concern for Palestinian human rights is obviously causing Israel and its supporters a great deal of worry,” Balsam said.

“So, instead of trying to defend Israel’s actions – which is just about impossible – they have opted simply to label critics as anti-Semitic. We need, as a society, to see through this.”

Thanks to efforts by Independent Jewish Voices Canada, working alongside Palestinian rights groups and civil liberties activists, the Vancouver city council decided in July not to adopt the IHRA definition.

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Comments

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tom hall replied on

"In March, even the left-wing Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Vienna banned BDS Austria."
So it's come to this. For the record, Rosa Luxemburg utterly rejected Zionism. As a matter of fact, she even repudiated the Bundist movement which opposed Zionism in Jewish areas of eastern Europe. Her position was one of international, revolutionary solidarity with the working class- everywhere and anywhere. She loathed Zionism and had no truck with Jewish particularism in the liberation struggles underway throughout the world.

On the subject of the cancellation of ¡Yallah! ¡Yallah! by the Austrian film chain, the explanation provided for doing so is both incoherent and easily understood. That in itself is a kind of achievement in the field of human communications. The Israeli smear-machine got to them with threats, and the company folded. The producers should sue for compensation and screenings be resumed in Austria. And Cineplexx itself, owners of the Artis Cinema banning the documentary, should be made to reveal the names of those persons and organisations who applied pressure to suppress this film.

Finally, with respect to the shunning by the Liberal Party of its candidate in Quebec, Hassan Guillet, Canada's politics have taken on the hue of other, pro-Israel states. Zionist groups and persons who aren't even affiliated with a given party have obtained an absolute veto in the selection (or deselection) of candidates. That's a great deal of power, but it's also indicative of much fear. Keep fighting, Canadians, for Palestinian rights. You're on the right path.

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tom hall replied on

They're not being forced together- they're just not being treated separately, in isolation, as though these events are unrelated. Given that the blog is called "Activism and the BDS Beat", and that the theme of both stories is one of pressure brought to bear by Zionist elements aimed at censoring, intimidating and suppressing the movement for Palestinian rights, the connection seems obvious- does it not?

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Frank Dallas replied on

People interested in power love slippery terms. "Antisemitism" has become a gag which can be slipped over the mouth of anyone the Zionist lobby disagrees with. There are some who claim the very term Zionism should not be used unless positively. Slippery terms: "Jew" becomes "Zionist"; "Israel" becomes "the homeland of the Jewish people"; "the Jewish people" becomes "Zionists"; "Semitic" becomes "Jewish" and thus "Semitic" becomes "Zionist".....Ambiguity, ambivalence, mystification, double-speak.
The term "antisemite" should be replaced by "Jew-hater". "Semitic" doesn't mean Jewish. Arabic is a Semitic language. There's no reason why people who speak it shouldn't describe themselves as Semites. "Jew-hater" is a clear, straightforward term. It doesn't include people who think the ethnically cleansed Palestinians should be permitted to exercise the right of return guaranteed by the UN. Nor does criticism of Israel State policy mean you hate Jews, any more criticism of French State policy means you hate French people.
The IHRA definition is weak and confused in both its body and its examples. We need a definition which speaks of "Jew-hating" and which specifically exempts from that definition the kind of examples mentioned above. Hating Jews is an infantile disorder like hating Muslim or Christians. Taking a principled stand in favour of a right of return for the Palestinian people is a mature, considered, rational position. To conflate the two is not merely intellectually dishonest but morally despicable. It is a deliberate refusal to permit sensible definitions which everyone can understand to prevail.
Was Folke Bernadotte a Jew-hater? On the contrary, he did much to assist them to escape the Nazis. The Zionists murdered him all the same because he dared to question their absolute right to do what they like and kill whoever gets in the way. And now, the Zionists are paranoid over us watching a film about Palestinians playing footie. Truly pathetic.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.