In an article on the Jordanian news agency Ammon News, Jordanian television director and critic 'Amer Gharaibeh criticizes the Saudi TV channel MBC2, which airs from the UAE, for showing films that are sympathetic to Jews and recognize the Holocaust. He states that one of the movies recently shown on this channel (apparently Roman Polasnki's The Pianist) included Holocaust scenes that are "illogical" and "go against human nature," and therefore raise doubts regarding the film's realism. He also argued that Hollywood is controlled by Jewish capital and acts to promote a Jewish agenda and evoke sympathy for Jews throughout the world.
The article prompted many reader comments, the vast majority of them sympathetic to the writer's point of view.
The following is a translation of the article:[1]
"The MBC2 channel frequently airs films that deal with Jews, propagandize for them, and recognize the German Holocaust against them. The question whether the [Holocaust] happened or not does not concern us. What concerns us is that this movie was aired last Friday night on an Arab channel and is a primitive but powerful attempt to evoke the viewer's empathy towards the Jews. It relies on the [method] of creating an illusion, defined as emotional bonding, formed by engaging the viewer in the movie's emotional [world] and thus influencing him. This is what Aristotle called 'catharsis,' created by evoking fear and compassion in the viewer.
"The movie tells the story of a Jewish pianist shortly before his family is sent to a Holocaust camp. It presents naively[-imagined] scenes of murder that make no dramatic sense... For instance, someone who smuggles some wheat into the Jewish neighborhood is simply murdered. The organized murder and extermination are presented in a humdrum fashion that contravenes the nature of human beings, who have a basic [instinct] of self-preservation. It is illogical that a German soldier would order ten unchained Jews to step forward and then pass from one to another shooting them in the head, with each of them waiting for his turn [to be shot]. The movie contains many such scenes, which lack the simplest characteristics of drama that would justify classifying the film as realistic.
"What troubles us here is that Hollywood is controlled by Jewish capital, which strongly promotes its own agenda [and works to] spread this culture and create empathy towards the Jews throughout the world. But even more troubling is the question of whether there is someone at MBC2 who is forcing a certain outlook upon the channel, causing it to constantly show films of this kind, which harm our Arab and Islamic [identity] and promote the agenda of others."
Endnote:
[1] Ammonnews.net, April 22, 2012.
