Free film screening in Sofa provides ‘Case for Israel’

For the unaware, unsure, strongly opinionated or just interested in Israel, a screening of the film “The Case for Israel” will be 7:30 p.m.in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts room 102.

The free production is part of IU’s inaugural Israel Awareness week.

“The goal is to have different events for awareness of Israel that’s mostly cultural not political,” said Sara Geboff president of Hoosiers for Israel.

Geboff had the idea to hold a screening of the documentary film after attending the premier in Jerusalem last spring.

The film holds the title of the Remi Winner of the 42nd Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival 2009. The documentary film is based on the book by Alan Dershowitz.

Through various interviews and narration by Dershowitz, the film, like the book, is organized by a series of questions and assumptions about Israel, which Dershowitz attempts to prove or disprove accordingly. Dershowitz’s ultimate goals are to argue the case that Israel has the right to exist as a state and expose the threats that he believes could hinder that reality.

“I was blown away,” Geboff said. “I felt very empowered by it. People on campus could benefit from it.”

The event is sponsored by Indiana Israel Public Affairs Committee, Hoosiers for Israel, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, IU Student Association, Legacy Heritage Fund, The David Project, and The Helene G. Simon Hillel Center and Masa. Hillel.

Masa Hillel President and junior Matt Levitt said the film aligns with the type of work that one of the film’s producers, CAMERA, attempts to promote.

A lot of schools have anti-Israel groups said Rachel Herman, vice president of Hoosiers for Israel. IU is lucky not to have that and to have the opportunity to create awareness through events like “The Case for Israel” screening, she said.

The film producers are conducting screenings in various states around the country in the upcoming months.

“We made this film as a proactive defense of Israel,” said producers Michael Yohay and Gloria Z. Greenfield on the film’s Web site.

The Web site, www.thecaseforisrael.com, provides more information concerning the film, those involved in it, and those who would like to become more involved in its case.

“The hope is that students who are Jewish and not Jewish will get involved in pro-Israel advocacy,” Herman said.