Organized By Media Education Foundation
Amherst (42.386488, -72.528857)
Dear friends of MEF -- Please join us on Tuesday, April 5 for the Pioneer Valley premiere of MEF's newest documentary film about Israel’s decades-long propaganda war in the U.S. The Occupation of the American Mind, narrated by legendary musician and activist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, will screen at UMass to kick off a nationwide campus-based distribution strategy designed to push back against recent attempts on American college campuses to silence opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. “On college campuses around the country, the free speech rights of students mobilizing in support of the Palestinian people have been under attack in truly frightening ways,” said MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, the Executive Producer of the film. “We’re witnessing a sophisticated campaign, funded by right-wing billionaires like Sheldon Adelson, to silence debate and vilify pro-Palestinian voices, all designed to make sure nobody questions U.S. support for Israel. This is part of a much larger propaganda effort that’s been going on in the U.S. for decades. This film looks at that effort.” Ranging from Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the early 1980s to its recent bombardments of the Gaza Strip and its ongoing occupation of Palestinian land, The Occupation of the American Mind examines how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and pro-Israel lobbying groups have waged a series of coordinated PR campaigns to manage political fallout from Israel’s actions and policies, and shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor. “This is less a film about the details of the conflict than it is about how the conflict has been framed to the American people by U.S. news media and political leaders of both parties,” said Loretta Alper, who co-directed the film. “The American people give billions of dollars a year to Israel in aid, and there have been a lot of powerful interests at work to make sure that doesn’t change – no matter how brutal the results have been for the Palestinian people.” The film features leading experts on media, public opinion, and the Middle East, including Israeli journalist Amira Hass, former pro-Israel lobbyist M.J. Rosenberg, former MSNBC commentator Rula Jebreal, author and activist Noam Chomsky, scholar Rashid Khalidi, and UMass alumnus Yousef Munayyer, who has emerged as one of the most prominent pro-Palestinian voices in the country. The film will screen on the UMass campus Tuesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at a theater in the Integrative Learning Center, Room N-151, at 7:30 p.m. This event is free & open to the public.