The screening of a film comparing Israel to South Africa’s apartheid regime was cancelled in Cape Town.
The theater reportedly cancelled the screening after receiving hundreds of demands from patrons who were against the film.
The Labia Theater in Cape Town decided to cancel the Thursday night screening of a film called “Roadmap to Apartheid,” by Ana Noguira, a documentary which compares thd circumstances of the Palestinians with those of black South Africans under apartheid.
The free screening was promoted by a pro-Palestinian NGO called right2know, or R2K, and by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign of SA, which sponsored screenings of the film earlier this year in Durban and in Johannesburg.
The South African Zionist Federation had earlier refused an invitation to participate in a debate with the Palestinian Solidarity Group after the screening. Julie Berman, director of the federation, told JTA that the federation declined the offer to debate since the film is heavily biased – ‘‘which would not allow any intelligent debate on such complex issues.”
Berman emphasized that the federation did not try to influence the theater owner to cancel the screening, saying he only learned about it though the media and it is not
the federation’s role to lobby against or for the actions of private enterprises, free to make their own decisions.
The theater owner, Ludi Kraus, said that he could not condone the screening of a biased film, and a one-sided public discussion after its screening.
Kraus added Wednesday that he was not prepared to please a handful of his clientele and risk losing the majority of them, explaining that he received hundreds of emails opposed to the screening, and only five emails in favor.
R2K has threatened to demonstrate in front of the movie hall Thursday night when the screening was to have taken place.
Video courtesy of RoadmaptoApartheid
