Quick Takes II

Still a little quiet on the BDS front (although I expect that to change soon enough)...

In the meantime, here's an enjoyable piece about the Israeli distributor of Ken Loach's films who plans to donate all of profits they earn from his latest picture, Waiting for Eric, to the promotion of Israeli cinema around the world. Loach, whose work I've always found a bit heavy handed, is often celebrated for his political stances (and for the fact that he never "went Hollywood") by people who've seen even fewer of his films that I have. But in recent months, he's been the face of the cultural boycott of Israel due to his refusal to take part in film festivals that included Israeli pictures. The Israeli distributor of his latest film has taken the Buycott idea mentioned in my last posting one step further, letting Loach's own art generate the resources needed to cancel out the censorship of other artists the director is advocating.

And speaking of film, I couldn't resist a link to this piece at the equisite UK site Harry's Place. I'm not a big fan of the "If you boycott Israel, you'd better throw out your cell phone" argument since - as has been demonstrated - the BDS crowd lives in a fantasy world where only other people must sacrifice for their political beliefs. But this piece has a nice edge to it and hits a number of strong notes that make it worth a read.

Ciao for niao.