Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence (PBS)

[Behind the Aegis]

This is a PBS TV program that will be airing on Monday, January 8 at 10PM EST/9PM CST. It is an hour long. Here is a blurb from the site:

ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE 21st CENTURY:
THE RESURGENCE
Premieres on PBS, Monday, January 8, 2007
10:00-11:00PM EST (check local listings)

New York, December 12, 2006 - Today, many parts of the world are experiencing a massive resurgence of anti-Semitism - from hate propaganda, to vandalism, to violent attacks on Jews themselves. Worldwide, since the year 2000, major violent acts against Jews and Jewish institutions have nearly doubled from 1990s levels. People are asking: Why is this happening? What real threats does it pose? And what roles do Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict really play? The answers will surprise almost everyone. Hosted and narrated by veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff, Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence explores the roots of anti-Semitism and examines how and why it continues to flourish today. The 60-minute documentary was written, produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Goldberg in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Goldberg is also the producer of the recent PBS film The Armenian Genocide.

In June 2006, a poll by The Pew Charitable Trusts revealed that over 97 percent of Egyptians and Jordanians hold "unfavorable opinions of Jews." Among scholars, journalists and experts, there is little disagreement that anti-Semitism is on the rise. Throughout the Arab and Islamic world, overt hatred of Jews has become commonplace in mainstream media. Across the Middle East, a recent 30-part mini-series depicts Jews murdering a Christian child to make Matzo with his blood; anti-Semitic commentaries and cartoons appear regularly in newspapers.

"I think it is dangerous to underestimate the importance of propaganda and rhetoric in terms of harming people," explains Salameh Nematt, Washington D.C. Bureau Chief, Al Hayat Newspaper. "This anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish attitude is victimizing a huge number of people."

Says host Judy Woodruff, "We live in a time of growing intolerance, especially religious intolerance, and it is unsettling to see anti-Semitism on the rise once again. As a journalist, I am proud to be associated with this documentary, which sheds light on a particularly troubling form of hateful behavior."

Filmed in Syria, Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, France and the US, Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence includes interviews with David Ignatius of the Washington Post; Israeli Knesset Member Natan Sharanksy; Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi; New York Times best-selling author and NYU Professor Tony Judt; Professor Hisham Ahmed of Birzeit University, Ramallah; Hassam Hamed, Head of Egyptian State Television and others.

Through extraordinary and disturbing archival footage, interviews with leading experts, and bold man-on-the-street interviews, Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence weaves together the past and the present to explore the evolution and re-birth of an age-old prejudice.

more...

[Roland99]

1. Is it anti-semitism or hatred of the Israeli gov't?

I'm guessing it's more of the latter.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I guess we'll find out on Monday.

[breakaleg]

3. In the middle east today, you really have to wonder.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Wonder about what?

[Lurking Dem]

9. If PBS was doing a show on

whale migration would you ask if it was really about whale migration or was it about puffins?

[Roland99]

11. And from out of left field.....

:eyes:

[Lurking Dem]

16. out of left field is exactly right

Here is the description of the show:

A look at anti-Semitism and its resurgence. Included: hate propaganda, vandalism and assaults on Jews; violent acts against Jewish institutions; the roots of anti-Semitism; why it continues to flourish.

How is vandalism and assault valid political speech? Antisemitism has fuck all to do with politics except for those who use it as a cover for their bigotry. Conversely, people who protest the Israeli government and its policies but don't engage in hate speech, propaganda, vandalism, or assault are not antisemites.

It's really quite simple.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. If you would have read the article, you'd know...

"Major Funding for Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence is provided by: Stockton Media, Harvey and Constance Krueger, The Marc and Diane Spilker Foundation, The David B. Heller Foundation, and The Rita J. and Stanley H. Kaplan Foundation."

[Lurking Dem]

8. In my mind

there is only one reason to make such an unfounded and pointed accusation.

Do you think there IS no such thing as antisemitism?

Or do you think that that only producers of shows ABOUT antisemitism have a hidden political agenda?

Do you think that Jews are NOT ever victims of antisemitic acts?

If you feel that an act of vandalism or assault on Jews in, say, Italy are actually expressions of anti-Israel sentiment, why?

[katsy]

7. I'm just thinking out loud.

Anti-semitism to me is no different than homophobia, racism, bigotry against muslims or sexism for example... all bigotry.

So why isn't there an umbrella organization to fight all types of bigotry. I don't exactly know how to express this, but wouldn't it be a powerful group... gays, muslims, jews, people of color, as well as humans who won't stand for any type of bigotry standing together, pooling their knowledge and resources to fight bigotry?

I know of only the Anti Defamation League who have tried to include racism in it's program. But I couldn't find a broader more inclusive organization that acts as a central advocate for minority rights worldwide.

I'll watch this program.

[Lithos]

12. Worldwide?

HRW, Amnesty International and quite a few others.

Domestically (US), Southern Poverty Law Center is another major player. There are quite a few others as well.

L-

[katsy]

13. Thank you Lithos.

I forgot about the Southern Poverty Law Center.

[oberliner]

10. Interesting tidbit from The Pew Charitable Trusts poll

Approval ratings for Jews remain strongly positive throughout the West, with the exception of Spain, where the favorability number has dropped to 45% from 58% a year ago. In the Muslim world, attitudes toward Jews remain starkly negative, including virtually unanimous unfavorable ratings of 98% in Jordan and 97% in Egypt.

Muslims living in Western countries have a more moderate view of Jews - still more negative than positive, but not nearly by the lopsided margins that prevail in Muslim countries. The Muslims in France are a special case: 71% have a positive view of Jews. This is the only Muslim population or sub-population surveyed whose opinion of Jews is more favorable than not.

http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?PageID=831

[Behind the Aegis]

14. kick.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. A review.

January 8, 2007
TV Review | 'Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence'
The Libeling of a People Surges With a Vengeance
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Diatribes against the Jews are shockingly crude in Arab television programs and newspapers. They are also shockingly commonplace, “the elevator music for the Arab world,” as David Ignatius, an international affairs columnist for The Washington Post, puts it in “Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence,” a PBS documentary that is broadcast tonight. And that background noise has become more strident and pervasive over the last few years, spread by satellite television and the Internet throughout the Middle East and North Africa, with echoes reverberating deep into immigrant groups in Europe.

“Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century” tries to explain the origins of that hate as well as its surge. Whatever its roots, anti-Semitism in the Muslim world is linked inexorably to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and keeps getting worse. And no topic is more sensitive or incendiary. So not surprisingly, the script is cautious and elliptical, more comfortable exploring the past than the present.

The film begins with a vitriol sampler, clips of various Islamic clerics culled by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington monitoring group founded by Yigal Carmon, a former counterintelligence adviser to the Israeli government. In 2004 on Al-Manar TV in Lebanon, for example, Sheikh Taha al-Sabonji said, “Those responsible for all civil strife and other problems throughout history were the Jews.” (Muslim extremists are not the only ones to express such sentiments, of course. Mel Gibson expressed a similar idea when he was arrested for drunk driving.)

A history lesson follows. Various experts explain that Jews did not have equal rights in the Muslim-ruled world, but were relatively tolerated until the 19th century, when the crumbling of the Ottoman empire and the rise of the Zionist movement dramatically changed the landscape. Jewish refugees escaping persecution in Europe arrived in Palestine en masse. “The Arab reaction was a refusal of Jewish presence,” says Zeev Sternhell, an Israeli historian. “It was not anti-Semitism.”

more...

[grassfed]

17. the chicken or the egg?

Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in August, nearly three people have been wounded or killed each day by cluster bombs Israel dropped in the waning days of the war, and officials now say it will take more than a year to clear the region of them. United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region. They are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble and littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools.As of Sept. 28, officials here said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people — and killed 18 others.

Muhammad Hassan Sultan, a slender brown-haired 12-year-old, became a postwar casualty when the shrapnel from a cluster bomb cut into his head and neck. He was from Sawane, a hillside village with a panoramic view of terraced olive farms and rolling hills. Muhammad was sitting on a hip-high wall, watching a bulldozer clear rubble, when the machine bumped into a tree. A flash of a second later he was fatally injured when a cluster bomblet dropped from the branches. “I took Muhammad to the hospital in my car, but he was already dead,” said Yousef Ftouni, a resident of the village.

The entire village was littered with the bomblets, and as Mr. Ftouni recounted Muhammad’s death, the Lebanese Army worked its way through an olive grove, blowing up unexploded munitions in a painfully slow process of clearance. Cluster bombs are legal if aimed at military targets and are very effective, military experts say. Nonetheless, Israel has been heavily criticized by United Nations officials, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for using cluster bombs, because they are difficult to focus exclusively on military targets. Israel was also criticized because it fired most of its cluster bombs in the last days of the war, when the United Nations Security Council was negotiating a resolution to end the conflict.

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/1006-07.htm

[Behind the Aegis]

18. This has NOTHING to do with the topic.

[ellisonz]

19. Will the Sunday Times (UK) be discussed?

:rofl::hide::popcorn::puke: