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Israeli director Eyal Sivan. (Archives)
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Last update - 15:16 29/04/2007
Report: Anti-Zionist Israeli to direct movie for Israel's 60th birthday
By Haaretz Service

An Israeli director who is a self-proclaimed "anti-Zionist" has been hired by an Israeli television channel to direct a film marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state, Army Radio reported Sunday.

According to the report, Eyal Sivan will be given a NIS 650,000 grant, paid for by Israeli taxpayers, to direct a film for next year's Independence Day, Israel's 60th.

The film will be part of the "Past and Present in Israel" project, meant to promote Israel's "Jaffa" brand citrus fruit. It will be produced by Channel 8 television, together with the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Rabinovitch Fund.
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Sivan, who has resided in Paris for the past 15 years, directed the 1999 film "The Specialist," which used footage from Adolf Eichmann's trial to portray the architect of the Final Solution as just a Nazi party bureaucrat, the radio said. The film also attempted to present Sivan's view that Eichmann's Jewish victims could have done more to prevent themselves from being murdered, it said.

In an interview in 2001 in the French newspaper "Le Monde," Sivan famously referred to the UN's 1947 partition plan, which called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, as a "historical mistake." He also said that the rise of anti-Semitism in France is in large part due to the support for Israel by French Jews.

Sivan co-directed with Palestinian director Michel Kleifi the 2007 documentary "Route 181," which deals with life along the seam line, which formed the pre-1967 West Bank border.

According to the radio report, French Jewish academic Alan Finkelkraut called the movie "incitement to murder" for the comparisons it draws between the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government and the experience of European Jews during the Holocaust. Sivan sued Finkelkraut in French court in 2007 over the remark, but the lawsuit was thrown out.

The radio report stated that during the Second Lebanon War last summer, Sivan joined a group of Israeli filmmakers in signing a petition pledging support to Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. The petition read: "We the signatories are absolutely against the brutality and cruelty of the State of Israel as shown in the news from recent weeks.
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  1.   if eyal sivan were a man with character and ideals... 09:16  |  saul a. readner 29/04/07
  2.   Let`s petition for his dismissal 09:26  |  Ice 29/04/07
  3.   Discusting 09:33  |  Gary 29/04/07
  4.   Where`s the logic? 09:33  |  Logician 29/04/07
  5.   Discusting 09:41  |  Gary 29/04/07
  6.   This is national suicide and I am from the left! 11:10  |  Fabian 29/04/07
  7.   Sickening 11:33  |  Scott 29/04/07
  8.   ARE WE CRAZY! 11:37  |  Miriam 29/04/07
  9.   I know him 11:40  |  Joseph 29/04/07
  10.   Eyal Sivan 11:40  |  Yanek Goldberg, MD 29/04/07
  11.   National Suicide is the real analysis 11:41  |  Vogel 29/04/07
  12.   i am not in the least bit interested 11:46  |  parismatch 29/04/07
  13.   will be given a NIS 650,000 grant, paid for by Israeli taxpayers 11:52  |  curious 29/04/07
  14.   THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!!!!!!!! 11:53  |  Ben Uziel 29/04/07
  15.   Film will make lots of money 11:53  |  Francis 29/04/07
  16.   Israeli speciality-financing Bishara and him and Pappe and.. 12:00  |  Absolute Sweden 29/04/07
  17.   Israel in a positive light 12:22  |  Ben Alofs 29/04/07
  18.   The truth hurts 12:34  |  SJ 29/04/07
  19.   Irresponsible and waste of money. 12:53  |  Vital 29/04/07
  20.   Who approved the funding? 12:53  |  Stan 29/04/07
  21.   Is it the only film?????? 13:04  |  Ronnie Wolman 29/04/07
  22.   I love Jaffa citrus products 13:18  |  B. Cott 29/04/07
  23.   to Silvan 13:21  |  Marcelo 29/04/07
  24.   In the footsteps of Michael Moore 13:29  |  Alicia 29/04/07
  25.   IF EYAL SIVAN 13:32  |  DANNY. 29/04/07
  26.   There`s Always Next Year 13:58  |  Harry D 29/04/07
  27.   Only in Israel 14:03  |  Steven 29/04/07
  28.   Abraham was a rebel, not? 14:09  |  Mark B. 29/04/07
  29.   Eyal SILVAN 14:17  |  SALOMON 29/04/07
  30.   self proclaimed anti zionist produce a pro israeli film? 14:22  |  Alon Fisher 29/04/07
  31.   this is terrible 14:22  |  yuval 29/04/07
  32.   Finkelkraut called the movie "incitement to murder" Sivan lost 14:24  |  PETER SM 29/04/07
  33.   Israel and the Perpetual War 14:31  |  Ronnie Wolman 29/04/07
  34.   A SELF-HATED JEW? 14:33  |  indrajaya 29/04/07
  35.   Address to complain? boycott. 14:44  |  benateed 29/04/07
  36.   Good for him, maybe good for Israel 14:48  |  John 29/04/07
  37.   Anti Zionist is not antisemitism 14:54  |  Toto 29/04/07
  38.   ISRAEL CAN LEARN FROM EYAL SIVAN.... 14:54  |  Markus 29/04/07
  39.   A ZIONIST STATE was opposed by Liberal Jews at the time 15:12  |  sara 29/04/07
  40.   LEFTIST ZIONIST ISRAELI, an OXYMORON 15:13  |  Mark 29/04/07
  41.   Should have been Steven Spielberg 15:14  |  Chris Linthwaite 29/04/07
  42.   movie 15:17  |  samuel 29/04/07
  43.   Yes, why not feed the Palestinians and Arabs 15:28  |  Jon 29/04/07
  44.   Speechless 15:42  |  SLAVO 29/04/07
  45.   Rabinovich fund to blame 15:45  |  bernard ross 29/04/07
  46.   Jefferson and Spinoza, USA a mistake as well! 15:47  |  HonestAbe 29/04/07
  47.   #34 15:52  |  Sol 29/04/07
  48.   Channel 8 could compete with G. Levy, which of them is more democ 15:58  |  Avi 29/04/07
  49.   Calm Down 16:08  |  PB 29/04/07
  50.   I Would Have Been Surprised If They Picked A Pro-Zionist 16:08  |  Ben Israel 29/04/07
  51.   Making Pro Israeli Films 16:10  |  Philip Morris 29/04/07
  52.   Was Pakistan a mistake? 16:14  |  HonestAbe 29/04/07
  53.   Good man 16:15  |  PB 29/04/07
  54.   Something productive for Haaretz to do 16:20  |  B`Galil 29/04/07
  55.   Biting the hand that feeds? 16:21  |  Philip Morris 29/04/07
  56.   Self-Hating Jew E.Sivan shouldn`t get any Jewish money. 16:26  |  Vittorio 29/04/07
  57.   # 41 Chris.You forget, Spielberg is also anti-semitic! 16:46  |  Toronto`s Finest 29/04/07
  58.   Have We Lost Our Minds. Not Enough Good Directors in Israel? 16:50  |  steve 29/04/07
  59.   Anti sionist point of view ?!? 16:52  |  Bonheur 29/04/07
  60.   57: Toronto`s strangest, he has that right, just not 16:55  |  David Teich 29/04/07
  61.   Nakba was born on the 50`th anniversary 16:57  |  peter 29/04/07
  62.   totally insane 17:07  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/04/07
  63.   THE QUESTION is can the Jewish state continue 17:10  |  Vijaya 29/04/07
  64.   PEACE IN OUR TIME, apart from the moral aspect of this question 17:20  |  Vijaya 29/04/07
  65.   Past and Present - The Fall of France in 1940 17:25  |  Albert Edelson 29/04/07
  66.   Vijaya, I`m glad you`re so concerned 17:31  |  peter 29/04/07
  67.   Films for Anniversaries:Negatives and Positives 17:32  |  Ronnie Wolman 29/04/07
  68.   How to object to Sivan 17:38  |  benateed 29/04/07
  69.   Sivan defined himself as `dissident` to be included in exhibition 17:39  |  expat 29/04/07
  70.   #52 Honest Abe- the answer is yes 17:43  |  Michael N 29/04/07
  71.   Heads should roll because of this 17:46  |  Shalom Freedman 29/04/07
  72.   Alnert Edelson,Drancy doesn`t apply to Eyal : He`d scream "I`m Mo 17:46  |  Absolute Sweden 29/04/07
  73.   Ben Alofs 17:52  |  Danite 29/04/07
  74.   Cipora 17:53  |  Danite 29/04/07
  75.   peter.Vijaya can demand because Moslems are so perfect 17:56  |  PETER. S.M 29/04/07
  76.   Protest Decision 17:57  |  benateed 29/04/07
  77.   what nonesense is this?!! their head should roll 17:59  |  ralph 29/04/07
  78.   Eyal Sivan is a snob opportunist, don`t give him the job ! 18:04  |  Fortuna Benmayor 29/04/07
  79.   Peter SM 18:11  |  Danite 29/04/07
  80.   #74, Danite 18:20  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/04/07
  81.   He`ll probably hire Amira Haas to be the script writer 18:24  |  * BEN JABO 29/04/07
  82.   Pro Zion anto Zion yada yada 18:24  |  John Coady 29/