KINSELLA: Anti-Israel hatred from artsy types a troublesome trend

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Have our cultural icons lost their collective minds?

Across the cultural landscape — music, film, books — it certainly seems that way. Musicians, filmmakers, authors have apparently persuaded themselves that they alone can solve the Middle Eastern crisis from their distant perches in Canada or the U.S. or Europe.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, most politicians generally know they lack the superpowers to single-handedly end wars like the one raging between Israel and Hamas. But some self-important culture types clearly think they do.

Take TIFF for example (please). In the past few days, as the entire world knows by now, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and his Toronto International Film Festival adamantly refused to screen a documentary based in Israel by acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich — after having previously promising that they would.

Why? Well, many suspected latent antisemitism played a role with unseen forces at TIFF. This writer wondered if Hamas’ banker — Qatar — had put pressure on TIFF, with whom it has quietly partnered since 2019.

TIFF’s stated reason? Avrich and his fellow producers had failed to secure permission from Hamas — to show some Hamas footage in the documentary! (We are not making this up, as much as we wish that we were.) It was absurd and insane: Bailey and TIFF wanted a terror group’s approval first.

After the scandal became front-page news around the world — good job, Navigator! — TIFF hastily called emergency board meetings to find a way to put out a raging PR fire. Late Thursday, the film festival did a whiplash-inducing reversal and invited Avrich back. But the damage had been done to the reputation of a major Canadian cultural icon.

More damaging revelations are on TIFF’s horizon, because its disdain for the Jewish state remains: Avrich’s film isn’t the only one that has been maligned by TIFF for being fair towards Jews and Israel. Other prominent Jewish film makers have also been treated shabbily by Bailey and TIFF. (Stay tuned for details.)

Elsewhere, further examples of anti-Israel hatred abound. For instance, if you happened to be walking past the Park Hyatt Hotel last November — as this writer did — you would have seen protesters screaming about Israeli “genocide,” and condemning the Giller Prize gala, that night taking place inside.

The protesters weren’t so much the issue — as addled as they may be, they have a constitutional right to protest. The issue, instead, are the many writers who received Giller’s prestigious awards. The ones who swanned around inside past Giller galas, snarfing canapés.

Michael Onjdaatje, Madeleine Thein, Sarah Bernstein, Suzette Mayr, Omar El Akkad, Sean Michaels, Lynn Coady, and Johanna Skibsrud were all past winners of the prestigious Giller Prize – and all signed a letter in the Toronto Star condemning the Giller’s then-sponsor, Scotiabank, for having supposed links to Israel.

That, too, is free speech. But how many of those writers who received generous cash prizes from the Giller jury — in some cases, as much as $100,000 — actually gave back what they had received? None. Not one. None of these literary heavyweights, it seems, practice what they preach.

Meanwhile, the Giller is now on life-support, and is desperately seeking new sponsors to replace what they’ve lost. If the Giller slips under the waves, it will be a national tragedy — and it will be entirely the fault of the pro-Palestine or pro-Hamas (take your pick) fringe.

In the music scene, it’s the same sad story. Too many — from Bob Vyllan advocating death for Jews, to Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters shrugging about Oct. 7 — have embraced hatred. Instead of producing music that brings people together, they have chosen to drive people apart.

In some parts of the publishing industry, at the smaller houses, similar stories run rampant: those who submit manuscripts that advocate for a “free Palestine” have a much easier time getting published. Those with positive things to say about Israel? Not so much.

Sadly, expressing hatred for Israel has become pretty trendy since the war commenced.

And few as obsessed with being trendy as our cultural elite.

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