Issues

Antisemitism

DC suburb cancels screening of anti-Israel film

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A Washington, D.C., suburb has canceled for now the screening of an anti-Israel film narrated by Roger Waters as part of a free documentary series.

Thursday’s proposed screening of ‘The Occupation of the American Mind’ in the Takoma Park Community Center in Maryland as part of the “We Are Takoma” series has “spurred expressions of concern and support from a number of organizations and individuals,” Donna Wright, the spokeswoman for the city of Takoma Park, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday in an email.

“The Takoma Park City Council appreciates the comments and has asked that the screening of the film be postponed to a later date,” she wrote. Wright did not specify a date.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington had asked the municipality, a famously liberal enclave that includes a thriving Jewish community, to reconsider showing the film. The JCRC thanked the council for postponing the film.

“The very title and description of the film, asserting that pro-Israel groups are engaged in a propaganda campaign to control the American media and government, echoes sinister, age-old anti-Semitic tropes about Jews that of late are resurfacing with alarming regularity,” the JCRC said in a statement.

Read More: Jewish Telegraphic Agency