On Wednesday, May 4, the Naro Cinema presented The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the U.S. This film is an extremely skewed propaganda piece for the ‘Israel as evil occupier camp;’ those who believe Palestinian suffering is primarily Israel’s fault and therefore any terrorist actions on the part of Palestinians are justified by Israel’s “occupation.” The film is narrated by noted BDS proponent, Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd fame.
BDS and the anti-Israel movement are entitled to their viewpoint, but they tend to minimize or completely overlook the reasons Israel must take agonizing steps to defend her populace—reasons like the latest Palestinian terrorist tactic of stabbing innocent Israelis.
As insidious as the BDS movement is, this film distorts reality by further implying that, “the Israeli Government, U.S. Government and pro-Israel lobby shape media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor.” This is a completely farcical statement. The reason many BDS supporters—who have likely never been to Israel or lived a Hamas rocket away from a neighbor that wants them dead—believe that Israel is the villain, is because of the skewed coverage of the conflict—skewed to favor the Palestinians.
One just has to look at how the recent spate of Palestinian stabbings of Israelis has dropped from the headlines, receiving almost no coverage in the U.S. press. These stabbings haven’t ceased, only the coverage of them has. Not newsworthy anymore because the killing of Jews in Israel doesn’t garner ratings here in the U.S.
While we hope that one day there can be peace in Israel, a time when her neighbors accept her right to exist and she doesn’t have to send every child into the military, movements like BDS and propaganda films like The Occupation of the Mind, serve to skew the truth, pressure Israel’s efforts to defend her populace and embolden those who want to see a weakened Israel wiped off the map.
To BDS and Palestinian sympathizers, I have one question: If by some miracle we learned tomorrow that all Palestinians have accepted Israel’s right to exist and have lost all desire to harm or kill Israeli Jews, and instead pledged to begin working towards economic development and education within the West Bank and Gaza, how long thereafter would it take to achieve peace with Israel and a two state solution? So who has the power to bring peace to the land of Israel?
Jay Klebanoff