- "We did not direct this series against Judaism.
It is against Zionism. We differentiate between Judaism and Zionism,"
Akhdar said. "We want to reveal the truth of Zionism."
-
- BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah's
al-Manar television, in a move that has drawn Washington's ire and accusations
of anti-Semitism, has started airing a series on the history of Zionism
it says shows a Jewish plan to dominate the world.
-
- In a Syrian-produced series broadcast on Manar's satellite
channel across the Middle East during the high-viewing Islamic holy month
of Ramadan, the station promises to reveal what it says is the true face
of Zionism.
-
- "The series shows us how Jews don't refrain from...
committing the worst crimes against all those, Jews or non-Jews, who stand
in the way of the Jewish dream and their project," a summary of the
series, entitled "The Diaspora," said.
-
- Western critics worry the show, set in mandated Palestine
and Europe between 1812-1948, could stoke hatred toward Jews and invokes
what Jews view as stereotypes used for centuries to incite violence against
them.
-
- Manar says it has received no complaints.
-
- Manar, the mouthpiece of Hizbollah guerrillas whose attacks
helped drive Israel from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation,
says the 26-part series is based on Jewish sources including the Torah
and targets Zionism, not Judaism.
-
- "This series carries a dose that could be very surprising
for those who don't know the ways and policies that the world Zionists
used to achieve their goals and to corrupt the world," said Nasser
Akhdar, associate director at Manar.
-
- The State Department said Tuesday that Washington complained
to both the Lebanese and Syrian governments after a Jewish group described
the show, which started airing Monday and is also available to satellite
viewers in Europe and the United States, as anti-Semitic.
-
- Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, opposes both Middle
East peacemaking and the existence of the state of Israel.
-
- Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Amira Oron denounced
the series Wednesday, saying it "rehashes a false history" of
the Zionist movement that portrays Israel as "conceived in sin by
deliberately shedding Arab blood and stealing Arab land."
-
- Ehud Yaari, Arab affairs correspondent with Israel's
Channel 2 television, said: "This series is a classic act of anti-Semitism,
that has invested a great deal in trying to fuse European Hitlerism with
Islamic anti-Jewish bigotry.
-
- "Hizbollah wants to continue in the tradition of
poisoning minds in the region against Israel."
-
- 'WE MUST CONTROL THE WORLD'
-
- The show, a high-quality production made by a private
Syrian company with Manar's backing, opens with an actor portraying an
early promoter of Zionism telling his children to spread their ideas in
Europe.
-
- "Our lord has promised us retribution against those
who sent us into exile. For this reason...we must control the world, all
of it, through loyal agents in foreign governments," he says.
-
- Manar says the actors are meant to depict actual historical
characters.
-
- In one yet-to-be-broadcast scene, set on a boat taking
Jews to what would become Israel, a Jewish rabbi is portrayed as raping
a young woman.
-
- In a scene set in a training camp for the underground
Jewish Haganah militia, a commander is portrayed as encouraging Jewish
fighters to hit targets at a firing range by telling them to get drunk
on the blood of "butchers."
-
- "Let's drink the blood of these butchers until our
souls are drunk...Get ready, fire," the commander tells his men in
a scene viewed by Reuters at Manar's studios in Beirut. The series is set
to be translated into English and Hebrew.
-
- Manar said it was wrong to view the series, which took
nine months to complete, as anti-Semitic, saying that it had been reviewed
by historians and there were Jews in the series who opposed Zionism.
-
- "We did not direct this series against Judaism.
It is against Zionism. We differentiate between Judaism and Zionism,"
Akhdar said. "We want to reveal the truth of Zionism."
-
- "From the beginning, al-Manar has had policies on
productions like this, which are a part of showing the truth of the Zionist
organization -- the methods it resorted to in raping Palestine."
-
- Last year Israel and the United States criticized Arab
governments for allowing their state-run televisions to broadcast an Egyptian
series alleged to give credence to the forged Protocols of the Elders of
Zion.
-
- The producers said that series did not take a position
on the authenticity of the Protocols.
-
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-
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3713047
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