Israeli director gets attacked by Arabs at France film festival

From Mako:

Yariv Horowitz, who directed the film "Rock the Casbah" is currently being featured at a film festival in France, was attacked by a group of Arab youths while winning the best film award.

Horowitz, who represents Israel and directed the film festival "Aoviin" held European country, was attacked immediately after the screening of the film in place by a group of Arab youths. The director lost consciousness, was treated there and after recovering from the blows he received, he returned to the festival area in good condition.

After the violent incident, which apparently was racially motivated, Horowitz's film won the Special Prize of the Jury for Best Picture.

The film "Rock the Casbah" follows the story of young soldiers in the first intifada in Gaza, wh0 are stationed on the roof of a Palestinian family whose son is involved in the murder of one of their battalion.

Here is the trailer to the film:



The film is apparently critical of the IDF but it is not one-sided. Horowitz told Ha'aretz recently:

"It happened there, on the roof, when I was a 19-year-old child in a combat helmet and protective vest," Horowitz says. He starting thinking about the enormous amount of restraint it took for the soldiers to cope with the spitting and the cursing, the rocks and the concrete. "What you want most at that moment is to bash them in the face with your rifle butt," he says. "But in most cases the soldiers didn't do that, at least not near me, perhaps in part because I was holding a camera."

"I went up on the roof and I said to myself, it's absurd, this story must be told from the inside. It cannot be the case that 19-year-olds are being asked to make split-second decisions that the Supreme Court could take months to decide ... whether or not to shoot, to shove, to use 'moderate physical force' or immoderate force. If a child throws a concrete block on them, for example, and flees into some home, they have to decide quickly whether or not they're allowed to force open the door or not, whether it's legal or not. I saw some [soldiers] who broke in without thinking, but others who held themselves back and didn't. These are difficult ethical decisions that can stay with them for years to come."

(h/t Kramerica)