The Barbican Arts Centre in London is Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue.
Currently the Barbican Centre has a show titled Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black and white photos showing Palestinians during the Great Cleansing. The images were taken by photojournalist Alan Gignoux soon after israel began massacring Palestinians in 1947.
The photos are actually tame, and the exhibition -- originally funded by the British Council -- was staged without incident in Jaffa, Amman, Beirut, Cairo, Belfast, and Amsterdam.
However, when the exhibition appeared in Jewish-owned England, zionists screamed about captions accompanying the photos, which note that 800,000 Palestinians were "uprooted" and "dispossessed.”
Jonathan Hoffman of the zionist federation accused the Barbican Arts Centre of "falsifying" history. He complained to the Barbican Arts Centre's director Nicholas Kenyon, saying, "The exhibition contains historical distortions that demonize israel."
Lior Ben-Dor, a spokesman for the israeli embassy, said the exhibition did not reflect “reality.” He claimed it ignored the “fact” that Arabs caused the “refugee problem.”
"Arabs refused a UN resolution for the establishment of a Jewish state alongside an Arab one, and started a war that caused the refugee problem,” Ben-Dor said.
Ben-Dor, the israeli, condemned the Barbican Arts Centre for not staging an israeli film festival for 18 years, despite repeated requests, yet regularly hosting a Palestinian festival, the latest of which closes this week.
In reality, an israeli Cinema Showcase appeared throughout London earlier this month, and the Barbican Arts Centre itself is planning a Yiddish film festival next year.
Jonathan Hoffman of the zionist federation says this is not enough. "If the Barbican Arts Centre thinks a Yiddish film season goes any way towards balancing four successive years of Palestinian film festivals, they are wrong. It is about as much balance as would be putting chicken soup and salt beef on their restaurant menu."
(huh?)
Hoffman objected to the language in a caption that recounts the forced expulsion of Palestinians. He says, "Arab inhabitants left, or sold their homes to israelis.”
Hoffman says a caption accompanying a picture of a grandfather, saying the man was "allowed to stay in israel after 1948,” was inaccurate, because
Another photo, showing empty fields where an ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village once stood, says the inhabitants fled after hearing of violence nearby, where "dozens of Palestinians were killed.” Jonathan Hoffman of the zionist federation said this statement was "conjecture".
In contrast to the zio-terrorists, the London-based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said the language was appropriate. Its spokesman, Martial Kurtz, said: "It is widely accepted that the creation of israel involved massacres, and villages being erased."
Last night the Barbican Arts Centre dismissed the zionists’ lies, saying it would not bow to political pressure.
"This exhibition examines the issue of home and exile, juxtaposing portraits of Palestinian exiles with present-day images of the places that they left in 1948."
The exhibition runs until 2 May 08.
One of the Barbican’s web sites (http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/event-detail.asp?ID=7462 ) says this:
Alan Gignoux’s photos provide an antidote to a western media saturated with images of exiled Palestinians as either extremists or victims, whereas the majority are individuals trying to build a life for themselves in complex circumstances.
Some of the photos can be seen here:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/generic/large-images.asp?id=7462&im=5417&af=film
Submitted by Abdul Alhazred on Wed, 2008-04-30 18:54
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