By Adam Pagnucco.
Tomorrow, a Montgomery College club and two college faculty members are hosting a screening of The Occupation of the American Mind, a film alleging that Israel has engaged in a “public relations war” to build support for its policies in the United States. The film provoked mass controversy five years ago when it was shown by the City of Takoma Park.
Let’s start with an email by a college professor promoting the screening.
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From: “Salmi, Katya” <katya.salmi@montgomerycollege.edu>
Date: April 13, 2024 at 8:23:44 AM EDT
Subject: Film Screening and Discussion: Occupation of the American Mind 4/16/24
The Arab Club and Faculty for Justice in Palestine invite you to a film screening and discussion on US Media and bias in reporting, facilitated by Dr. Ellen Olmstead and Dr. Katya Salmi.
Tuesday, April 16th, 2-4 pm
Rockville Campus SC 126
&
Zoom (Register here)
Film Synopsis
“Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and its repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States. The Occupation of the American Mind takes an eye opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S.
Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor.
The Occupation of the American Mind provides a wide-ranging analysis of Israel’s decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people — a battle that has only intensified over the past few years in the face of widening international condemnation of Israel’s increasingly right-wing policies.”
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Katya Salmi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Sociology Coordinator (Rockville Campus)
Montgomery College – Rockville Campus
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The screenshot below of the Zoom registration confirms that college resources are being used to screen the film.
Five years ago, the City of Takoma Park screened the film, provoking pushback from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC) and several elected officials. Among those who protested the screening were eight members of the Montgomery County Council, who wrote a letter to the city about the film. According to MoCo360:
In a letter eight county council members signed Friday, they state that the film depicts a “hateful and destructive premise of Jewish control and propaganda” that “has been weaponized to persecute Jews and justify the destruction of the Jewish people.”
“By sponsoring the film, the City of Takoma Park appears to be legitimatizing a premise that American Jews control the media and national politics, which is extremely offensive and hurtful to Takoma Park’s many Jewish residents, the entire Montgomery County Jewish community, and to all those who oppose bigotry,” the council members wrote.
The same article quoted a letter sent by Senator Ben Kramer to then-Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart: “What is next on the agenda …. Should we reflect on 1933 Germany for just a little guidance? Perhaps soon you will require your Jewish business owners to place Stars of David on their storefronts so that later it will be easier to identify them and smash their windows, or perhaps just a government promoted synagogue burning or two … after all, it’s just the Jews.”
Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Takoma Park resident who attended the screening, wrote this on Facebook:
Having lived in Takoma Park for decades, and having raised my family in this wonderful city, I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that our City’s government is still planning to show this piece of anti-Semitic garbage on the taxpayers’ dime.
I’m fine with freedom of speech and political expression. I’m not fine with our local government using my tax dollars to peddle the same bigoted dog whistles that have been used to rationalize hatred, discrimination and violence against the Jewish people for generations. I don’t know who in the hell thought this was a good idea, but Kate Stewart and the City Council need to make the call TODAY to cancel this showing and relegate this movie – and its anti-Semitic values – back to the dark fringes of our society.
The film does have supporters, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which defended the city’s showing of the film.
Many Jewish residents will dislike the film’s depiction of Israel allegedly controlling American media. Indeed, the U.S. State Department includes the following in its definition of antisemitism: “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.” Others will defend the film as an exercise of free speech.
So once again, we ask this question: Is this academic freedom? Or hate speech?