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Film Festival adds November showing of documentary

The award-winning 2008 documentary, The Case for Israel: Democracy’s Outpost, has just been added to the Select Film Series of free screenings of award-winning films the Tampa Bay Jewish Film Festival committee is offering periodically year-round.

The documentary will be shown on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Kol Ami in Tampa and on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m., at Temple Ohev Shalom in Tampa.

Pinellas screenings will be Nov. 12 at 7 p.m., Temple Ahavat Shalom, Palm Harbor, and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. at Temple B’nai Israel.

In the 2008 landmark documentary featuring Alan Dershowitz, the distinguished Harvard Law School professor and outspoken champion of individual rights, rises in vigorous defense

of the Jewish state.

He stresses Israel is under attack — not only by terrorists who deny its basic right to exist, but also in the court of world opinion, which seeks to marginalize Israel as an alleged human rights pariah that sanctions apartheid.

The 77-minute film by Doc Emet Productions, which premiered on Oct. 19, 2008 at the 24th annual Haifa International Film Festival. The documentary was the 2009 Remi winner at the annual Worldfest Houston International Film Festival and won special mention at the 2009 Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.

The documentary presents evidence from leading historians, analysts, legal experts and leaders on both sides of the political spectrum to make the definitive case for Israel’s legitimacy and right to self defense.

In the film, Dershowitz, who wrote the book The Case for Israel, argues forcefully that real peace in the Middle East can only occur when the Palestinians, Arabs and their allies finally value the creation of a Palestinian state more than they oppose the presence of a Jewish state.

Through conversations with 28 commentators — ranging from former Foreign Minister and opposition leader Tzipi Livni, Ambassador Dennis Ross and former Israel Supreme Court President Aharon Barak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (at the time the opposition leader) — Dershowitz refutes deeply entrenched misperceptions about Israel’s history, Jewish claims to a homeland, individual rights under Israel’s democratic system of government, the security fence, and military conduct in the face of terrorist attacks.

The film also includes conversations with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, human rights scholar Anne Bayefsky, former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, historians Benny Mor ris and Michael Oren, President Shimon Peres, senior analyst Alex Safian, Ambassadors Dore Gold and Dan Gillerman and Israel constitutional law expert Amnon Rubinstein.

Dershowitz closes with a formidable warning that the greatest threat to Israel is also the greatest threat to international peace and security: Iran’s aggressive nuclear ambitions, driven by a zealous anti- Zionist, anti-democratic mission that is championed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Unchecked, a nuclear armed Iran or its terrorist surrogate would imperil targets far beyond Tel Aviv.

When released in 2008, the documentary was screened at film festivals throughout North America and Europe, Asia and Israel. The film’s website, www.thecaseforisrael. com, includes articles by Dershowitz and others conversant in the issues facing Israel.

‘Case for Israel’ movie schedule

Wed., Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.,
Congregation Kol Ami
3919 Moran Road, Tampa
813.962.6338
Sat., Nov. 7 at 7 p.m,
Temple Ohev Shalom
6460 Tampa Palms Blvd., Tampa
813.632.9900
Thurs., Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.,
Temple Ahavat Shalom
1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor
727.785.8811
Sun., Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.
Temple B’nai Israel
1685 S. Belcher Road, Clearwater
727.531.5829