Defamation – Hashmatsa (2009)

Directed by: Yoav Shamir | 91 minutes | documentary | Starring: Abraham Foxman, Norman Finkelstein

In the documentary ‘Defamation’, Yoav Shamir, like an Israeli Michael Moore, goes in search of the meaning of contemporary anti-Semitism. To do this, he follows two completely different routes. He joins a group of Israeli students on an excursion to the Polish concentration camps from the Second World War. He also follows Abraham Foxman of the American Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that registers expressions of anti-Semitism and in the meantime lobbies for the Israeli cause. In between, Shamir visits Norman Finkelstein, a slightly crazy political scientist who is fed up with Jewish victimization.

However different the routes seem, both show that (alleged) anti-Semitism is being misused for political ends. The Jewish students are taught that they are not allowed to talk to the Polish population, because Europe is teeming with anti-Semites. Then they go to the camps, where they see what anti-Semitism can lead to. For example, these touching youngsters get an inherited victimhood split in their stomach and a fear of the evil outside world where everyone seems to hate Jews. These are the young people who will soon have to defend their homeland as conscripts.

The ADL makes it even worse. Any minor incident involving a Jew is seen as an act of anti-Semitism. Foreign politicians are immediately silenced by pointing out the Holocaust and the role of their country in it. Shamir shows that any criticism of Israel can thus be dismissed as anti-Semitism: if outsiders have difficulty with Israel’s settlement policy, it is not seen as political criticism but as an anti-Semitic statement.

Is this a tough cost? Well no. ‘Defamation’ is a light-hearted documentary, with graphic frivolities, witty commentary and a thick ironic sauce. That irony is partly in the voice over, partly in the large connections, partly in the small testimonies. For example, an African-American says that it is better to rob a colored person than a Jew. If you rob a Jew you are not only a robber but also an anti-Semite. With a heavier penalty as a result. And what about Norman Finkelstein, a professor accused of Holocaust denial all over the internet. Finkelstein lost both parents in the concentration camps.

That irony is the main weapon in an amusing, nuanced and profound film, which apparently manages to tie loose threads together into a cohesive whole. Made by a videographer who can easily be dismissed as a leftist, but who is above all humane. Which immediately explains the open attitude of all those portrayed.