Joesoef
27-07-05, 21:19
Israel row over Sharon curse film
By Sebastian Usher
BBC World Media Correspondent
The Peace Now movement in Israel has called on a television station not to show a controversial film by right-wing extremists.
The footage shows a ceremony in which the extremists call for the death of the prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
In it several men pray for Mr Sharon to be killed because of his plans to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
By paying for the rights to the video the Channel 2 programme was an accessory to a crime, said Peace Now.
The film is scheduled to be broadcast as part of the Channel 2 current affairs programme Mishal Kham.
A trailer has already been broadcast and shows a group of men performing the rite of Pulsa Denura - an ancient curse with its origins in Jewish mysticism.
Pulsa Denura means "whip of fire" in Aramaic.
Don't give people ideas. The media have no small part in this agitation
Beit-El Rabbi Shlomo Aviner
Participants in the ceremony call upon angels of destruction to refuse to forgive the subject of the rite and to kill him, using a series of curses from the Bible.
The ceremony was performed by far-right extremists in the months before the former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in November 1995.
Although his assassin was not associated with the group that called down the curse, the ceremony added to the feverish mood that preceded Rabin's killing.
Rite 'despicable'
That is why Mishal Kham believes it is justified in showing the footage, which was filmed last Thursday in the small northern town of Rosh Pina.
But the decision to air the video has provoked controversy and condemnation in some quarters of Israel - as has the fact that the programme reportedly paid the right-wingers $5,000 for the footage.
Avi Barzilai is the executive producer at rival TV station, Channel 10, and has dismissed the rite as "a despicable ceremony by despicable people bought and broadcast by individuals who pretend to be journalists and would do anything to raise their ratings".
A spokesman for the Peace Now movement, Yariv Oppenheimer, said: "Mishal Kham's willingness to pay for the tape makes it an accessory to a crime, and a major inciter of violence".
Peace Now has called on the regulatory body for TV to stop the full broadcast of the tape.
On Israeli Army radio, one of the leading right-wing rabbis, Beit-El Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, said the Pulsa Denura ceremony was the act of extremists, who were only after media attention.
"Don't give people ideas. The media have no small part in this agitation," he added.
Certainly, the broadcasting of the footage comes at an extremely volatile time in Israel, as settlers and their supporters intensify protests against Mr Sharon's withdrawal plan, due to begin in August.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4721757.stm
Published: 2005/07/27 16:31:34 GMT
© BBC MMV
By Sebastian Usher
BBC World Media Correspondent
The Peace Now movement in Israel has called on a television station not to show a controversial film by right-wing extremists.
The footage shows a ceremony in which the extremists call for the death of the prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
In it several men pray for Mr Sharon to be killed because of his plans to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
By paying for the rights to the video the Channel 2 programme was an accessory to a crime, said Peace Now.
The film is scheduled to be broadcast as part of the Channel 2 current affairs programme Mishal Kham.
A trailer has already been broadcast and shows a group of men performing the rite of Pulsa Denura - an ancient curse with its origins in Jewish mysticism.
Pulsa Denura means "whip of fire" in Aramaic.
Don't give people ideas. The media have no small part in this agitation
Beit-El Rabbi Shlomo Aviner
Participants in the ceremony call upon angels of destruction to refuse to forgive the subject of the rite and to kill him, using a series of curses from the Bible.
The ceremony was performed by far-right extremists in the months before the former prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in November 1995.
Although his assassin was not associated with the group that called down the curse, the ceremony added to the feverish mood that preceded Rabin's killing.
Rite 'despicable'
That is why Mishal Kham believes it is justified in showing the footage, which was filmed last Thursday in the small northern town of Rosh Pina.
But the decision to air the video has provoked controversy and condemnation in some quarters of Israel - as has the fact that the programme reportedly paid the right-wingers $5,000 for the footage.
Avi Barzilai is the executive producer at rival TV station, Channel 10, and has dismissed the rite as "a despicable ceremony by despicable people bought and broadcast by individuals who pretend to be journalists and would do anything to raise their ratings".
A spokesman for the Peace Now movement, Yariv Oppenheimer, said: "Mishal Kham's willingness to pay for the tape makes it an accessory to a crime, and a major inciter of violence".
Peace Now has called on the regulatory body for TV to stop the full broadcast of the tape.
On Israeli Army radio, one of the leading right-wing rabbis, Beit-El Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, said the Pulsa Denura ceremony was the act of extremists, who were only after media attention.
"Don't give people ideas. The media have no small part in this agitation," he added.
Certainly, the broadcasting of the footage comes at an extremely volatile time in Israel, as settlers and their supporters intensify protests against Mr Sharon's withdrawal plan, due to begin in August.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4721757.stm
Published: 2005/07/27 16:31:34 GMT
© BBC MMV