NOVANEWS
Egyptian film-makers who were to sit on the jury of a French film festival in Cairo are boycotting the event because of an Israeli entry, saying they refuse to normalise relations with the Jewish State. Skip related content
Director Kamla Abu Zikri Enlarge photo Related content
Director Kamla Abu Zikri and actor Asser Yassin told AFP they were boycotting the “Rencontres de l’Image” festival organised by the French embassy’s cultural centre (CFCC) in Cairo from April 8-15 after finding out that one of the directors, Keren Ben Rafael, is Israeli.
The festival programme had not mentioned Zionist Ben Rafael’s nationality, only that she graduated from a prestigious French film school. The decision to quit “is not anti-Jewish, it is to protest against Zionist policies,” Yassin told AFP.
“I respect France’s freedom to choose the films it wants to show in a festival it is organising, but I also have the right to take a decision which I feel is right,” he added.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979, but the decision has always been unpopular, particularly in cultural circles that reject such ties and refuse to show Zionist works in Egypt.
Abu Zikri said she withdrew because she rejects “any sort of normalisation with Israel.” Film-maker Ahmed Atef also resigned from the festival last week, prompting the CFCC to remove the Zionist’s film “Almost Normal” from the list of entries.
But in Paris the foreign ministry insisted that “the film in question is indeed on the programme” of the event before the film reappeared on the CFCC list of entries on its website.
The French embassy in Cairo has not commented on the boycott.
Most professional associations in Egypt, including the film and actors’ unions, have taken a position against normalisation with Zio=Nazi regime in ‘Israel’. Members of these unions who go against this risk being expelled.
Prominent journalist Hala Mustafa received a stern warning from the journalists’ union in February after she hosted Israel’s ambassador to Cairo in her office.
