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The furore over Redgrave

A rather bizarre event occurred
several weeks ago in the Jewish
community, which confused many
Canadians, Jews and non-Jews
alike. Suddenly a number of high-
profile leaders of the Jewish com-
munity were urging their followers
to boycott a television drama called
Playing for Time.

So sensitive was this issue that no

advertisers in Canada would touch
the show, and the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation did not
promote it all. Before the drama
was even shown, several hundred
callers phoned the CBC to com-
plain.
What was this show that engen-
dered somuchhysteria? Wasit anti-
Semitic, anti-Zionist, pro-fascist?
The answer to all those questions is
a clear no — in fact, the show was
clearly anti-fascist, and was a most
sympathetic presentation of the
struggles of Jews and others to sur-
vive the horrors of a Nazi concen-
tration camp.

Why then the moral indignation
over the showing of Playing for
Time? The answer is contained in a
single fact: the leading role in Fania
Fenelon’s autobiography was play-
ed by Vanessa Redgrave, a public
supporter of the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization.

It seems that the Zionist leaders
of the Jewish community were arg-
uing that no anti-Zionist actor or
actress should have the right to play
a Jew. As Canadian Rabbi Gun-

ther Plaut said in the Jewish News,

Oct. 9, ‘‘someone who supports
the destruction of Israel is no friend
of ours, and to see her as part of the
Jewish tragedy is macabre use of
her undoubted talents.”’

The argument therefore follows
— since Redgrave has openly sup-
ported the basic democratic rights
of the Palestinians, she therefore
must support the “destruction of
Israel,” and in effect the destruc-
tion of the Jewish people.

I must admit that as a Jew, the
original announcement last spring
of Redgrave’s selection to portray
Fania Fenelon raised many ques-
tions in my own mind. Was this a

publicity stunt? Was there no one _

as qualified to play the role who
was less controversial? Should

rs Sofia delegates eo
to speak Oct. 29

Lorne Robson of the B.C.
Provincial
Carpenters and NDP MLA Al
Passarell (Atlin) will speak at a
public meeting on Wed., Oct. 29
at 7:30 p.m. in the Langara
campus auditorium, 100 W.
4%h Ave., Van. along with
other B.C. delegates to the
World Parliament of Peoples
for Peace held in Sofia,
Bulgaria, Sept. 23-27.

Report back meetings are
also scheduled elsewhere
around the province, including
one in Kamloops and in
Nanaimo, where
will address the Carpenters con-
vention, which opens Oct. 23.

Earlier this month, some 75
people turned out to hear Bette
Pepper, Bert Ogden and Eila
Male talk about the Peace
Parliament at a public meeting
sponsored by the Fraser Valley.

Council of}

Peace Committee. }

Redgrave have been given the role
when-Fenelon herself had request-
ed they cast someone else?

But these questions faded quick-
ly as I began to watch Playing for
Time. Vanessa Redgrave was out-
standing in the lead role; it is hard
to imagine that anyone could have
done a better job. One cannot help
but suspect that at least part of the
reason Redgrave took this role was
to demonstrate that an anti-Zionist
could be sympathetic to the Jewish
people.

And here lies the greatest fear of
the Zionist — that anti-Zionism
may become distinguished from
anti-Semitism. For at the heart of
Zionist ideology is the need to
maintain its legitimacy through
portraying Zionism as the main de-
fender of Jewish people’s rights.

Anti-Zionism, therefore, must
always be equated with anti-Semi-
tism. These Jews who oppose
Zionism are therefore seen as de-
luded, self-haters, traitors, and the
like, the non-Jews merely as anti-
Semites.

In describing the Fenelon role as
played by Redgrave, Plaut com-
ments: ‘‘For her, a half-Jew, there
are in the play no meaningful alleg-
iances. . . There are only humans,
with more or less of the ingredients
that make for decency. It is a posi-
tion which decries nationalism and
which the film subtly exalts. In that
respect Redgrave does not really
play a Jew in the deepest sense.”’

Of course as a Jew Iam offended
by the fact that Plaut would label
me a non-Jew ‘“‘in the deepest
sense” because.I am a humanist
and internationalist rather than a
Jewish nationalist.

But my indignation is tempered
by the fact that I understand its
basis. If anti-Zionism comes to be
separated from anti-Semitism,
then Zionist ideology runs the risk
of being held up to vigorous critical
examination. And thenitis likely to
be seen, by both Jews and non-
Jews for what it is — a racist, im-
perialist, expansionist ideology,
which denies the right of self-deter-
mination to the Palestinian people.

And so the Zionist community
was put in a strange situation. To
encourage people to watch an anti-
fascist drama about Jewish history
was to risk the possibility that peo-
ple might begin to ask ‘‘danger-
ous’’ questions. Therefore the best
solution was to discourage people
from watching the show alto-
gether.

The end result of course was one
for which any progressive minded
Jew feels a certain sadness — the
North American Jewish commun-
ity, under the sway of its Zionist
leaders, has come down, as has
often been the case in recent his-
tory, on the side of reaction and re-

Vanessa Redgrave as a Jewish concentration camp prisoner in the
TV drama Playing for Time, based on the memoirs of Fania Fenelon.

pression. —J.N.
phillip david
rankin stone
paul :
mecmurray

barristers & solicitors
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CELEBRATE THE
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6:00 p.m.

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————

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