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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 5, 2006 |
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| Arab-American activist Nonie Darwish speaks in LA, Friday. Behind her are pictures of some 300 Israeli victims of suicide bombers. Darwish grew up in Gaza, the daughter of a man labeled a "martyr" after dedicating his life to organizing and carrying out attacks against Israel. (AP) |
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A petition claiming that the movie "Paradise Now" glorifies Palestinian suicide bombers and asking for its removal from Oscar consideration was delivered to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences - two days before Sunday's Academy Awards.
The petition, carrying more than 36,000 signatures garnered online, was presented at the academy's Beverly Hills headquarters by Arab-American peace activist Nonie Darwish.
Darwish said "Paradise Now" "did not show the evils of terrorism enough." She said that the movie puts a human face on the murderers of children."
"Any one of us could be a victim of terror at any time," she said. "Islamic terror has become an epidemic. We don't need to understand it. We don't need to excuse it.... No more. We need to end it."
She warned that if Paradise Now, one of five nominees in the best foreign film category, wins an Oscar at Sunday evening's ceremony, "it will send a message to young Arabs that we are accepted in the West and we have won."
Jpost reported that Darwish grew up in the Gaza Strip in the early 1950s, then under Egyptian rule. There her father, Lt.-Col. Mustafa Hafaz, was the leader of the fedayeen movement, a forerunner of a subsequent terrorist organization. Israeli forces killed Hafaz in 1956.
The Israel project, which organized the petition campaign, sponsored the news conference at which Darwish spoke.
"There should be films about those Arabs who refuse to become jihadists," she said. "We give too much honor to terrorists and not enough honor to their victims... I look forward to the day that Hollywood honors a Palestinian film that advocates peace."
Academy spokesman John Pavlik declined to comment on the petition and said he was unsure if officials would examine it.
However, he was clear about whether the nomination of "Paradise Now" would be withdrawn.
"Not gonna happen," Pavlik said. "It would be physically impossible to happen between now and Sunday and, beyond that, we're not going to disqualify films because some people don't like the content."
"Paradise Now" tells the fictional story of two young mechanics from the West Bank town of Nablus sent to carry out a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The film won a Golden Globe Award in January and is nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film.
The petition campaign was organized by Yossi Zur, an Israeli whose 16-year-old son, Asaf, died in a bus bombing in the northern city of Haifa three years ago Sunday - the day of the Academy Awards ceremonies.
Seventeen people died in that attack by the militant Hamas group, which recently won Palestinian parliamentary elections.
"'Paradise Now' is a movie that attempts to explain away the actions behind mass-murderers. This mere act, in effect, legitimizes this type of mass murder and portrays the murderers themselves as victims!" the petition states.
A counter-petition in support of the movie has drawn about 8,300 online signatures.
That petition says "Paradise Now" doesn't attempt to legitimize the bombings.
"It is a story about the suffering of Palestinians and how a life of desperation can lead to an act of desperation," according to the petition Web site.
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On the Web:
Anti-"Paradise Now" petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/060201/petition.html
Pro-"Paradise Now" petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/para222/petition.html
AP contributed to this report.
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