Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Barbican's tribute to 1948 accused of demonising Israel

Barbican's tribute to 1948 accused of demonising Israel
 
As far as the organisers of the exhibition are concerned, these
photographs of Arab refugees, displaced from their homes in Israel in
1948, are merely an artistic slice of life from a dramatic point in Middle
Eastern history.
But the Barbican Arts Centre's show Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black
and white images taken by the photojournalist Alan Gignoux soon after
Israel gained independence, is the unlikely frontier of new hostilities
between Britain's Israeli and Arab communities.
Jonathan Hoffman, of the Jewish umbrella group the Zionist Federation, has
complained to the London arts venue's director Nicholas Kenyon about
captions accompanying the photos, which state that the 800,000
Palestinians who left their homes were "uprooted" and "dispossessed". He
accused the Barbican of "falsifying" history.
Mr Hoffman insisted he was not speaking on behalf of the federation, on
whose board he sits, but added: "The exhibition contains historical
distortions which have the effect of demonising Israel."
Similarly, Lior Ben-Dor, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy, said the
language used in the exhibition, which was originally funded by the
British Council and staged in Jaffa, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Belfast and
Amsterdam without causing offence, did not reflect reality.
He claimed it ignored the fact that the "refugee problem" was caused by
Arabs refusing to accept a United Nations resolution for the establishment
of a Jewish state alongside an Arab one. "They refused a UN resolution and
started a war. The result of war was the creation of a refugee problem,"
Mr Ben-Dor added.
He also criticised the Barbican for not staging an Israeli film festival
for 18 years, despite repeated requests, yet regularly hosting a
Palestinian festival, the latest of which closes this week. "We would like
for them to open their doors to us," Mr Ben-Dor said. "The embassy would
be very happy if the Barbican chose to balance its activities with the
Palestinian Film Festival with an Israeli one."
Last night, the Barbican dismissed the accusations and insisted it would
not bow to political pressure. It said it had received only two other
complaints and defended the decision to stage the show, as well as the
language used in the captions.
It said: "We appreciate that interpretations of historical events can
potentially be controversial and may inspire strong reactions, but are
clear that decisions on such matters need to sit firmly with our artistic
and curatorial team.
"This exhibition is a serious, thought-provoking examination of the issue
of home and exile, juxtaposing portraits of Palestinian exiles with
present-day images of the places that they left in 1948."
London's Palestinian Film Festival is Europe's biggest and has been held
at the Barbican for four years. The centre is planning a Yiddish film
festival next year, and there was an Israeli Cinema Showcase across the
capital earlier this month. 
For Mr Hoffman, though, a celebration of Yiddish cinema is not enough. "If
the Barbican thinks a Yiddish film season in 2009 goes any way towards
balancing four successive years of Palestinian film festivals, they are
wrong. It is about as much balance as would be putting chicken soup and
salt beef on their restaurant menu."
Mr Hoffman said he objected to the language in a caption describing the
forced expulsion of Palestinians. He said: "Many Arab inhabitants left or
sold their homes to Israelis."
He claimed that a caption accompanying a picture of a grandfather, saying
he was "allowed to stay in Israel after 1948", was inaccurate because
Palestinians were not subject to systematic expulsions. Another photo,
showing empty fields where a Palestinian village once stood, says its
inhabitants fled after hearing of violence nearby where "dozens of
Palestinians were killed". Mr Hoffman said this statement was "conjecture".
The London-based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign insisted that the
language used was "appropriate" and hailed the festival and exhibition as
a success. Its spokesman, Martial Kurtz, said: "It is widely accepted that
the creation of Israel involved massacres and villages being erased."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/barbicans-tribute-to-1948-accused-of-demonising-israel-818048.html
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 the photojournalist Alan Gignoux
Un orrendo terzoposizionista, bravo.
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