Defamation

Yoav Shamir is a documentary maker who specialises in films about modern Israeli life. His latest deals with anti-Semitism, which he claims never to have experienced personally, yet he hears the term used everyday, describing it as ‘a constant buzz, always in the background, always annoying’. His quest leads him to explore whether anti-Semitism has become an excusable prejudice in some civilised societies, or whether it is used as a spectre to drum up support for right wing Zionism. He garners a broad range of opinions, including those of Abraham Foxman, director of the American Anti-Defamation League, which collects evidence of anti-Semitism, and controversial academic Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry, who has argued that the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews is used as justification of Israel’s conduct toward Palestinians. A journey to the site of concentration camps in Poland with Israeli high-school students gives revealing insight into what anti-Semitism means to kids two generations away from the Holocaust. Defamation is a bold, authored documentary that not only dares to raise serious issues, but also presents arguments with wit and balance, Shamir’s irreverent sense of humour making it as entertaining as it is provocative. —bfi