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PROTOCOLS OF ZION Send This Review to a Friend
Marc Levin’s film “The Protocols of Zion” not only mocks anew the famous anti-Semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” by taking it apart protocol by protocol, but he shows how it is being used once again in the upsurge of anti-Semitic hatred currently plaguing Jews. The battles in the Mid-East have fueled the situation, and are reflected in attitudes on the part of Muslim extremists or just impressionable and resentful folk duped by what they’ve been told.
Levin is not a passive filmmaker. He puts himself into the action and his method is confrontation. Out of heated conversations he dredges up hostile opinions that brand Jews as the villains of this world. The film reveals how amazingly ignorant and stupid so many people are.
To take an important example, the big lie that 4,000 Jews didn’t go to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11 has gained credence among those who believe Jews were responsible for the attack. Even the fact that so many Jews were among the victims doesn’t impress the people who accept the absurd conspiracy notion. The film notes that the lie has been trumpeted in the Arab media.
Levin also shows footage of horrendous indoctrination on Arab television against Jews, as children are taught to hate them in general and Israelis in particular and TV dramas echo the prejudice.
There is some humor—but not much—in the film, as when Levin banters with a group in New York, and one man who insists that Jews control just about everything points to Mayor Bloomberg as being Jewish. Levin counters by pointing out that the previous mayor was Guiliani. Triumphantly claiming Levin has proved the point, there is the rejoinder, “Yes—Jew-Liani.” The assembled guys laugh, knowing it’s only a wise-ass comment. Yet the basic animosity is still there.
The total effect of the film is a sad one in that so many people in the world can in this day and age believe the libel of “The Protocols” and that anti-Semitism seems inescapably on the rise. Levin’s film is a valuable one that alerts us to the situation and shatters any temptation toward complacency. A THINKFilm release.

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