BradfordToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter was sent in response to the article 'Bradford library accused of 'censorship' after axing film screening', which was published March 13, 2024.
It is unfortunate that organizations like “Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies” send classrooms on wheels to schools to educate our youth about the horrors of the Holocaust and tell our youth that they denounce any and all hatred against any and all groups, yet when someone is critical of Israel, they try to silence their critics by calling them anti-Semitic.
The threat of being doxed or being called antisemitic publicly shows that organizations like "Jewish Bradford Association” are holding us hostage.
In 2000, a movie was released showing the difficulties people in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have largely because of the colonialist laws of Israel. Simcoe County 4 Palestine presented this movie, “200 Meters”, to the BWG Library and Cultural Centre who initially approved the showing of the movie in the Zima Room this Sunday (March 17).
"Jewish Bradford Association” put together an on-line petition on change.org and garnered 359 votes and convinced the library that showing the movie might attract thugs and “might inadvertently incite anti-Semitic sentiments within our community”.
The library then cancelled the showing and said it was done “out of an abundance of caution to ensure our facility remains a safe space for all”.
Comments on the online petition include: “This keeps on spreading misinformation” and “… this movie is very antisemitic and tells a bunch of lies”. How are those making these statements different than those who were prosecuted as Holocaust deniers in Canada? Yet the people who made these statements managed to convince the library to prevent the showing of the movie. This film has won awards at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Many Jewish groups support an independent Palestine and actively protest the current war in Gaza.
Spoiler Alert: It is about the journey of a man who wants to see his son in a hospital. The hero is Jewish.
The library and the town are being held hostage by organizations who spread fear if you don’t do as they say.
Anthony Melidy
Bradford
