Bomb Victim´s Father Seeks Withdrawal of ´Paradise Now´ Award

Paradise Now tells the story of two Arabs who are sent on a suicide bombing mission to Israel. The petition has already gathered over 30,000 signatures from people all over the world who oppose its nomination.



Paradise Now has already won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film - a prize that often indicates which films will garner Oscars. Tzur [pictured above] says that the idea to petition the Academy was born immediately after he learned of the nomination. "After finding out that the movie was going to be nominated for the Oscar at the end of January, we started a petition calling to revoke the nomination. We have been able to gather around 32,000 signatures so far," Tzur told IsraelNationalRadio. "We are planning to package the petition and send it to the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures in the United States to let him know that so many people are in support of our call to revoke the nomination."



Many have accused the film of glorifying terrorism, humanizing the terrorists, minimizing the suffering of the victims' families, and encouraging further terrorism.



"People from all over the world signed the petition," Tzur said. "It was an Internet petition and we got a lot of supportive feedback from it. We are working with the Israel Project, based in the States, and they are planning to take the package we have sent them and hand deliver it to the academy."



Ironically, the Oscar ceremony is slated for this coming Sunday, March 5th - the 3rd anniversary of the bus bombing that claimed the life of Yossi's son Assaf and 16 others. "This year the Academy Awards ceremony is March 5th," Tzur said, "which is exactly three years to the day since the attack in which Assaf died. Every year this is a very sad day, but this year, the Academy Awards ceremonym and the fact that this movie might actually get the Oscar prizem is going to make it even sadder than usual."



Yossi described the horrific terrorist murder of his son, who was among nine other children killed when the bus they were riding home from school was blown up:

"Assaf was almost 17 years old. He was an 11th grader, in the computer department in high school. He was a typical teenager. He loved surfing, he loved music, and he loved spending time with his friends. That day he finished school and boarded bus #37 to come back to our house. At around 2:15 a suicide murderer decided to explode on the bus, killing 17 people, nine of them schoolchildren under the age of eighteen, returning to their homes."



Tzur criticizes the film's director for electing not to show the horror and pain that the reality of a suicide bombing causes. "The movie ends with one [terrorist] going back and one going ahead with the attack. We see [the terrorist] sitting on a city bus in Tel Aviv. The camera closes in on his face, his eyes. Then there is a big white screen, which I suppose, is meant to leave the viewer with thoughts of whether this act took place or not," Tzur said. But, he added emphatically, "we know how these scenes end and we actually experienced the end of the movie and the horrors that come with it. I think the movie is unrealistic in many ways. The director didn’t want to go and show what the results of those actions are."



Tzur is hopeful that the petition will have a positive impact and that Hollywood will not ignore the outpouring of public support that has been voiced calling for the revocation of the nomination. "I think Hollywood cannot ignore what’s going on in the world. I think America has had its share of terrorism. I think that by bringing to the attention of the American public the fact that such a movie is being nominated we can create enough pressure to get the Academy to change its ways and come out with some sort of statement explaining that they do not identify with any of the messages that this film tries to convey," stated Tzur.



Click here to view a website memorial to Assaf.



(Photos: A7 Photographer Josh Shamsi)