In search of anti-Semitism

OneWorld UK

By Daniel Nelson

Yoav Shamir was called an anti-Semite for one of his films, which, as a Jew and an Israeli, he found odd.

“At first I thought it was amusing. Being called an anti-Semite by an American Jewish reporter seemed completely farfetched. How could someone who chooses to live outside of Israel, who did not do military service like me, who did not lose a grandfather in the war like me, have the nerve to call me an anti-Semite?”

Until then, he recalls, he had never stopped to think about it: it was just an annoying background buzz.

“Once I did start noticing it, I realised that anti-Semitism is actually a very popular topic in the Israeli discourse. Not a day goes by without at least one article in the newspaper mentioning ‘Nazis,’ ‘the Holocaust,’ or ‘anti-Semitism.’ Having never experienced anti-Semitism myself — the closest I came was being compared to Mel Gibson — I decided to learn something about the subject.”

The result is Defamation. The film is a quirky, personal account of his learning process. He talks to historian Norman Finkelstein, who argues that anti-Semitism is used by the Jewish community and Israel for political gain; to academics Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer about their attack on the Israel lobby in Washington; to a group of young black men in New York; to his grandmother; to Israeli peacenik Uri Avneri; and he spends time with American Jewish leaders lobbying in European capitals, follows Israeli students on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz and visits Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.

His conversations are interesting, occasionally revealing, sometimes unexpected. A New York rabbi accuses the Anti-Defamation League of doing as much harm as good. The young black guys quote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a century-old anti-Jewish rant long ago discredited as a hoax and say they would be more likely to attack a black man than a Jew because “you get more time for attacking a white guy”. In Kiev, Rabbi Bleich suggests secular Jews are more concerned about anti-Semitism than religious Jews because it’s a way of showing commitment.

By gently persistent questioning Shamir teases out a whispered admission from an Anti-Defamation League bigwig that perhaps the organisation’s leader gets just a little too heavy with foreign politicians. And, quietly and without comment, he captures on camera a perfect example of how cross-cultural misunderstandings occur and are exaggerated.

But anti-Semitism is a big and troubling subject, and Shamir doesn’t really get to grips with it. It’s almost as though Shamir, with the confidence that Israeli power and prowess confers, feels slightly superior about US and European Jews’ concerns – is bemused and amused by it. On top of that, he has set out to make a personally idiosyncratic and entertaining film rather than deliver an academic treatise.

Much of the most animated and vitriolic debate in the film – especially among US academics and lobbyists – is about the conflation of Jewishness and Zionism, and the way defenders of Israel’s policies often try to deflect critics by accusing them of anti-Semitism. Yes, that’s an important debate, but surely of greater importance is the gradual resurgence of anti-Semitism in eastern Europe (illustrated by the Conservative Party's European allies) and its growth in the Arab world, and where it might lead. But that whole dimension is missing – and it leaves a gaping hole at the heart of the film.

It’s possible, for example, that anti-Semitism in the Middle East, fuelled by anger and frustration at Israeli occupation and settlement policies, will become so ill-informed and entrenched that it will form a reservoir from where it could spread back to parts of the world where it is currently in retreat.

It seems willful and perhaps symptomatic for an Israeli investigating anti-Semitism to look only to Europe and the US and to ignore its own neighbourhood.

* DEFAMATION wins LONDON FILM FESTIVAL GRIERSON AWARD for Best Documentary in the Festival

On behalf of the jury Nick Broomfield said:
“A fantastic film, Defamation does exactly what documentary, at its best, can do, making us re-examine our assumptions about an important and complex subject, in an absorbing and funny way. The film’s intellectual courage, boldness of conception and the excitement of the journey on which it takes you make this a winning film.”