Zionism before the judgment of history

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The film "Zionism before the Judgment of History" was released in 1983 and was even nominated for the USSR State Prize. Year of release: 1983, director: Oleg Uralov.

From the author of the film:

I work as a filmmaker at the Central Documentary Film Studio. The authority of the studio - "the faithful assistant to the party" was mainly based on the fulfillment of special tasks of the Central Committee of the CPSU: films about party congresses, holidays, anniversaries, initiatives, achievements, etc. Needless to say, these films with rich budgets, an unlimited amount of Kodak color film and modern cinema equipment were mainly shot by venerable directors and cameramen.

"Once the director of the TSSDF calls me …" - this is how you can start memories of any significant film for the studio and suggests making a full-length (!) Film in pursuance of the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Zionism … theme - "Jerusalem" and "Zionism Street", such a task could then seem important and very responsible. However, I asked the director:

-Why did the people refuse?

Having received no intelligible answer, I asked my colleagues the same question. It turned out that they are afraid of accusations of anti-Semitism and the Zionist lobby.

At the TsSDF in the 70s, the famous documentary filmmaker Boris Karpov had already made a film about the "reactionary essence of Zionism" and found a lot of troubles, and they tried to forget the film and sent it "to the shelf." I watch the film itself - from the very first shots, emotions are at the limit. The image of the film is a big dead tree all in the web of (presumably) Zionism. A tragic musical sequence, a dramatic voice of the announcer, telling about the original treachery of the Jews, who subdued the whole world with a cunning web … It is not easy for a talented artist to remain within the framework of political logic.

So I realized that courage is not about "losing your head", but about getting a movie out on the screens. It had to be made as objective as possible, taking into account the realities of that time, interpreting events from a generally accepted point of view and with a minimum of double-edged emotions. The original, working title of the film was "Alternative".

We have worked in the Middle East, Europe, and the USA. We, of course, interviewed both Yasser Arafat in war-torn Beirut, and King Hussein of Jordan in tense Ammann, and other important government officials of the countries involved in the Middle East conflict.

However, we believed that we should give the floor to the Zionists themselves. We thought that we would get the most interesting information from them. We filmed them, protesting at the Soviet mission in New York, at the World Zionist Congress there. In London, we met with the leader of the Jewish community, a member of the British Parliament and a prominent Zionist Gr. Jenner; in Paris, we filmed Louis Rothschild, and he complained that Israel's aggressive behavior was negatively affecting the lives of Jews in France.

An absolute success of the film was a meeting with Naum Goldman, one of the founders of Zionism, longtime head of the World Zionist Congress and former President of the World Zionist Organization. Of course, I was preparing to meet with him and knew many facts of his biography, but this little old man, and he was already 96 years old at that time, struck me with clarity of mind, wisdom and clarity of his political positions. In his opinion, "the existence of Jewry was not threatened by anti-Semitism, but by the complete emancipation and unprecedented economic prosperity of Jews in Western countries after World War II..", as well as "neutrality and territorial concessions will strengthen Israel's international position and have a beneficial effect on the development of Israeli society." He considered Israel's aggressive policy a big mistake. A leftist Zionist, he rejected numerous offers from Israeli leaders to take any government office. You will see a fragment of an interview with him in the film. Pay attention to the prophetic words from the Torah quoted by him, in a conversation with Ben Gurion, the Prime Minister of Israel in 1947 before the start of the First War: "He who starts a war will never end it." 67 years have passed, but there is still no peace in the Middle East … What a seemingly bright and tempting idea - to return to the homeland of our ancestors … We met N. Goldman in his apartment in Paris in the summer of 1982. He died in the fall after condemning the Israeli aggression in Lebanon. His ashes were taken to Israel and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.