…the Oscars, but I hope Paradise Now, the film about two Palestinian homicide bombers directed b the repellent Hany Abu-Assad, loses. Here are some excerpts from an interview with Abu-Assad:
At the beginning of our talk he demands that when quoting him I would refrain from using the term “terrorist” to describe people sent to explode themselves in buses and markets.
This is an act of terror, but this terror derives from another terror, Abu-Assad explains. Suicide bombings are a reaction to your terror, he says, and suggests the most accurate term to describe a suicide bombing would be “a counter-terrorist act.”
Even during the Holocaust, people did not strap on a bomb and set out to kill innocent people.
This was a different situation that only lasted six years, Abu-Assad replies, adding that in the first 30 years of occupation there were no suicide bombings. Who knows what would have happened in Germany had the oppression continued for 30 years, he asks rhetorically.
[Ed.: After 30 years there wouldn’t have been any Jews left; there were barely any still alive after six. Which illustrates one of the subtle, nuanced differences between the Holocaust and Israel’s treatment of the West Bank and Gaza.]
In other words, had you been living in the territories, you would have become a shahid (martyr)?
Abu-Assad hesitates for a second before replying, “yes.”
And there are no suicide bombers who do what they do because of anti-Semitism?
That’s a racist notion. No one hates Jews because they are Jews like in Europe, he replies. People have a reason for hating Israelis.
Sounds like the kind of guy who would get a big ovation at the Oscars.
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