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Parents say Oscars should drop `terror' film

With a picture of his son in the background, Yossi Zur, an Israeli whose 16-year-old son Asaf was killed by a Hamas suicide bomber in Haifa in 2003, attends a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Zur and other parents bereaved in the same blast have collected close to 30,000 signatures in a petition to be sent to the Academy of Motion Pictures with an appeal to withdraw the Oscar nomination of the movie ``Paradise Now,'' a Palestinian film exploring the motives of suicide bombers. PHOTO: AP

The parents of three Israeli children killed in a suicide bombing have sent a petition with 32,000 names to Hollywood to demand that a Palestinian film be dropped from the Oscars this weekend on the grounds that it promotes terrorism.

Paradise Now, about two suicide bombers planning an attack, is in competition for best foreign language film on Sunday -- the third anniversary of the bombing of a Haifa bus that killed 17 Israelis including nine children.

"Paradise Now is artistic terror," said Yossi Mendellevich, whose son, Yuvi, 13, died in the bombing.

"Instead of giving a judgment on such an act, the film contributes to the death industry and the myth of the suicide bombers," he said.

"By promoting and praising the film as an Oscar nominee, I'm sure the queue to become suicide killers will be much longer. What they call Paradise Now is `Hell Now' for us," he said.

On Wednesday, Mendellevich and the fathers of two other teenagers killed, sent a petition to the organizers of the Oscars demanding they drop Paradise Now which has already won prizes at the Berlin film festival and Hollywood's Golden Globes.

"By promoting and praising the film as an Oscar nominee, I'm sure the queue to become suicide killers will be much longer. What they call Paradise Now is `Hell Now' for us."

Yossi Mendellevich, whose son, Yuvi, 13, died in the suicide bombing featured in the film `Paradise Now'

Ron Kehrmann, who lost his daughter Tal, 17, said the film failed to portray the consequences for the victims.

"It leaves it to the audience's imagination at the end [as the bomb goes off]," he said.

"It goes blank white. We're living in the blank white and it's definitely not paradise," Kehrmann said.

Yossi Zur, who lost his son, Asaf, 16, said: "Those that chose to give the movie an award have joined the chain of suicide murderers."

"Some of the dialogue manipulates the viewer into believing that the Palestinians have tried everything and have no choice. It was hard for me not to feel that I am to blame for the murder of my son," he said.

The men say they do not want the film -- now showing in Tel Aviv -- to be banned.

"We feel that free speech and artistic expression are sacred," Zur said. "But the Oscars should think twice about what it means to award such a movie a prize."

One of the film's producers, Amir Harel, an Israeli, said it promoted dialogue not terrorism by encouraging audiences to reflect on what motivates a suicide bomber. He denied it was wrong not to show the consequences of the bombing.

"Everyone knows perfectly well what happens [after a bomb], but we felt at that point there's no need to tell the story any more," he said.

"Our purpose as film makers is to tell the story focused on the protagonists' point of view. I believe it doesn't undermine in any way the victims. It just doesn't deal directly with them, Harel said.

"Whenever there's a film depicting the Israeli side, no one ever says we should present the Palestinian side. I think balance is totally unimportant to art," he said.
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