I ett brev till kommunstyrelsens ordförande Anneli Hulthén kräver Israels ambassadör att visningen av filmen ”Även de döda har ett namn” stoppas på skolbion i Göteborg.
Också några borgerliga riksdagsledamöter har skrivit till Hulthén i samma ärende.
Filmens titel anspelar på de nio människor som dödades av israelisk militär på Ship to Gaza 2010. Den är en dokumentär om barnläkaren Henry Ascher i Göteborg vars familj till stora delar dog under Förintelsen.
Israels ambassadör Isaac Bachman anklagar filmen för att vara anti-semitisk och kräver (”ask and demand”) att den stoppas.
– Det är förolämpande att anklaga en film om mig och min familj för att vara antisemitisk, har Henry Ascher själv sagt i bland annat Aftonbladet och krävt en ursäkt av Isaac Bachman.
404 82 Göteborg
Att.
Foreign Minister Margot Wallström
Minister of Education Gustav Fridolin
Director General Anna Ekström, the National Agency for Education
Mrs. Jonna Ulin- Head of Arts and Culture, Gothenburg Municipality, Göteborgs Stad, Stadsledningskontoret
Stockholm, October 26 2015THE MOVIE ’ALSO THE DEAD HAVE NAMES’
Dear Anneli Hulthen,
Having at Iong last been able to obtain a rental copy of the much-publicized movie ’Also the Dead have names’ – l have finally had the chance to see it and form an opinion.
Judging from what had already transpired in the media, l came to it with serious misgivings and apprehensions. Even so, l was not prepared for the level of defamation and biased propaganda against Israel which the movie contained, or its cynical use and a buse of Holocaust references to create utterly false and indeed shocking parallels and claims.
lt is as official representative of the State of Israel- the main but not only target of the said defamation and partial propaganda, with not even an attempt at a ny balance- that l make this equally official complaint.
Even the title of the movie, an abusive travesty making a mockery of the name-reading ceremonies of Holocaust memorial day worldwide- ’Every Person has a Name’ – hints at the outrageous equivalence between the Nazi complete war of extermination against the Jews and Israel’ s reluctant defensive actions in response to unceasing terrorism, with humanitarian preeautians taken which no Western nation has equaled.lndeed, in this context it can be worthwhile to remind oneself of the EU working definition on anti-semitism, painting out t hatone of the characteristics of modern anti-Semitism is: ’Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israel i policy to that of the Nazis’.
Equally troubling is the disturbing and profoundly anti-Semitic suggestion that there are two types of Jews representing the very opposite ends of the moral spectrum – the morally acceptable Jew being the one sharing the convietians of the likes of Dror Feiler and Dr. Henry Ascher.
This is without even entering into the shocking – and of course patently false – accusations that lsraeli soldiers willingly and deliberately execute women and children at point-blank range.
Further examples exist, but hardly need to be cited.
In addition to Israel, other nations are also defamed with no chance to defend themselves. This goes for theUnited State of America portrayed as a sort of ’Greater Satan’ to Israel’ s smaller but – we are led to believe – possibly more nefarious one.
Also very serious accusations are leveled against the government of Greece, with no opportunity given to answer the accusations.
lt is simply not possible to conceive of a more partial and biased production. Sadly, l understand that the municipality of Gothenburg is a co-sponsor of this project. So be it. We live in a free society and those who wish have every right to watch whatever movie they prefer.
However, to introduce this movie – which presents caricatures of lsraelis and Jews and an extremelv false, simplistic and ill-intentioned interpretation of the Middle East conflict – into mandatory school-curricula is beyond the limits of the decent and the acceptable.
There is no lack of materials which would present the Middle East conflict with at least some degree of balance and intellectual honesty. This is not one of them.
Especially against the background of the fact that Jewish and Israel i representatives obviously cannot be present at each and every screening to counter the outrageous claims made in ’Aiso the Dead have names’, l ask and demand on behalf of the state of Israel- and to the best of my knowledge, a majority of Swedish Jews – that this decision be reversed and an extremelv anti-Israel as weil as anti-Semitic movie be removed from the school curricula.
lsaac Bachman, Ambassador of Israel”
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