A new film about a very old problem has become a cause celebre in Germany after two of Europe’s most acclaimed public broadcasters refused to air a documentary on rising anti-Semitism on the continent.
Germany’s WDR and ARTE, a French/German public network have been accused of bias, censorship and even institutional racism for their handling of a controversial film: Chosen and Excluded – The Hate on Jews in Europe.
Directed by award-winning documentarians Joachim Schroeder and Sophie Hafner, the project had been commissioned by the two public channels but was blocked by ARTE before its broadcast. The network claimed the film was one-sided and not what was originally ordered. Only after a major public outcry and after Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid, briefly leaked the entire film online, was WDR forced to air the documentary, on June 21, but only under protest, and in a highly edited version.
When WDR and ARTE first commissioned Chosen and Excluded back in 2015, the subject of European anti-Semitism seemed especially timely. The 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict had sparked a very public wave of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiment across Europe. There had been a spike in attacks against European Jews. And images, like those at demonstrations in Berlin in 2014 where pro-Palestinian marchers shouted “death to Israel” and “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig,” shocked liberal Europeans who thought the continent had put such virulent hatred behind it.
“The original idea of the film was to look at anti-Semitism across Europe: Germany, France, England, Hungary,” Schroeder told The Hollywood Reporter.
Schroeder, whose doc credits include the film Anti-Semitism Today. Just How Anti-Jewish Is Germany?is known in the industry here as an outspoken and provocative filmmaker whose views on the subject of anti-Semitism are well-established.
“We knew we wouldn’t get an Israeli-critical film,” admitted Jorg Schonenborn, director of television at WDR, in one of several TV interviews he has given on his channel regarding the documentary. Contacted by THR, Schonenborn declined to comment, pointing instead to his public statements on the issue.
Chosen and Excluded makes its purpose clear from the start. One of the first scenes shows Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, addressing the European Parliament in 2016. Abbas claims that Israeli rabbis have called on the government of Tel Aviv to poison the water system of the occupied territories. The claim is bogus, as Abbas later acknowledged (he claimed he was “misinformed”), but the film focuses in on it, seeing the story of “Jews poisoning wells” as one of a long history of what the film terms “anti-Jewish cliches and fantasies” that have been present in European society since the Middle Ages.
In broad strokes, Chosen and Excluded draws a direct link between the anti-Semitism of the past — from Dark Age pogroms to the virulent anti-Jewish writings of Protestant reformer Martin Luther and classical composer Richard Wagner — to attacks on Jews today in Paris and Berlin by Islamists and neo-Nazis.
More controversially, the film sees the same strain of hatred running through left-wing criticism of Israel and global capitalism. Alongside scenes of neo-Nazis and Islamists yelling anti-Semitic slogans, the documentary shows anti-globalization demonstrations and charities condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Chosen and Excluded portrays them all as variations on the same, anti-Jewish theme.
“They paraphrase, they don’t say: ‘Jews are the source of evil in the world,’ they say ‘Israel is the source of evil in the world’,” says Monika Schwarz-Friesel, an expert on anti-Semitism from TU Berlin University, in the film. “Instead of saying: ‘Jews control international finance,’ they fall back on Jewish, or Jewish-sounding names and say ‘Rothschild or Goldman Sachs controls international finance.'”
In one particularly controversial section, the documentary accuses European non-governmental organizations, particularly Christian charities, of anti-Semitism for their support of Palestinian groups and anti-Israel campaigns, such as the cultural boycott of Israel. Several prominent filmmakers and musicians, including I, Daniel Blake director Ken Loach, Rogue One actor Riz Ahmed and electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, support the boycott, which calls on artists to refuse to perform in Israel or take funding from the Israeli government or institutions. Many others, including Oscar-winner Helen Mirren and Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, have vocally opposed the boycott.