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French documentary blasts coverage on Mideast.
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
E
yen after 10 screenings a
day for the past several
weeks, a film charging that
the French media is biased
against Israel is still playing to packed
houses in Paris.
The film, Decryptage, or
"Decoding," has caught the mood of
French Jews who long have felt that
the French media's depiction of the
Mideast shows a pro-Palestinian slant.
The film's producers, Jacques
Tarnero and Philippe Bensoussan, say
it is "an opinion piece rather than a
documentary." But the film has suc-
ceeded in provoking widespread
debate in the French media, not
only for its content but also for the
fact that it appears to have struck a
chord among French Jews.
Each day, French Jews have gath-
ered outside the Arlequin cinema in
the heart of Paris' movie district on
the Left Bank of the Seine, in what
often appears more a gesture of soli-
darity with Israel than a desire for a
night out.
The lines stretch down the street,
and people who can't get tickets are
forced to return for later showings.
"People.come to feel united. It's
something between personal therapy, a
family visit, the synagogue and a foot-
ball game," Bensoussan explained.
Indeed, the vast majority of viewers
are Jews, a fact that irritates some in
the audience.
"I knew everyone in there," student
David Biton, 17, told JTA. "It's a
good film, but it's much more impor-
tant for non-Jews to see it. They
should put it on at other cinemas. It's
difficult enough as it is just to get
tickets here."
Demonization Of Israel
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Decryptage claims that there is a per-
sistent campaign by important sections
of the French media — most notably
by the leading daily, Le Monde, and
the international press agency, Agence
France Presse — to blame Israel for
the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada
in September 2000.
The film charges that major French
television channels consciously and
deliberately blamed Israel's then-oppo-
sition leader, Ariel Sharon, for the vio-
lence that began the day after his visit
to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Moreover, the film details what it
describes as evidence that the
Palestinian Authority planned the
intifada even while it was involved in
peace negotiations with Israel, details
that were ignored or glossed over by
French media.
The film also includes footage of
how Palestinian children are educated
to hate Israel and Jews. It also strongly
criticizes the portrayal by the France 2
television channel of the death of a
young Palestinian teenager in Israeli- .
Palestinian crossfire in the Gaza Strip
Decryptage has
mobilized the French
Jewish community.
in October 2000.
The image of the boy's death, cap-
tured by a French cameraman, became
one of the indelible early images of
the intifada and was used to whip up
anti-Israel sentiment around the world
— even though investigations later
showed that he might well have been
killed by a Palestinian bullet.
But the film is not simply an apolo-
getic for the current Israeli govern-
ment; indeed, both Tarnero and
Bensoussan are somewhat left of cen-
ter when it comes to the Middle East.
Rather, they were motivated to pro-
duce Decryptage by what Tarnero
describes as "a hateful holding to
account of Israel and an intellectual
scandal in France and in Europe."
"We have nothing against criticism
of the policies of the government of
the State of Israel," Tarnero states in
the film's preamble. "But what we
have seen for two years now, and
under the appearance of political criti-
cism, is just demonization, defamation
and denunciation" of Israel.
Mobilizing The Community
The film takes as its starting point
the 1995 assassination of Israeli