From the production team that created Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, comes Crossing the Line: The Intifada Comes to Campus, a documentary about anti-Israel activism on college campuses. The rollout of the film — which is directed by Wayne Kopping and produced by Raphael Shore — comes ahead of Israel Apartheid Week events which create “an insidious environment where Jews are verbally and even physically attacked on campus,” according to publicity for the 32-minute documentary.
Here’s a clip from Crossing the Line:
The makers of Crossing the Line argue that a line “is crossed when anti-Zionist rhetoric turns into a pure form of anti-Semitism.”
“Behind a veil of criticizing Israeli policies, professors, teaching assistants and other university authorities are putting Jewish students at risk,” says director Kopping. “This film provides a critical understanding of a dangerous trend on campus that we unfortunately see is growing.”
He adds, “What we have noticed on many campuses is that Jewish students know the accusations made against Israel are abusive and anti-Semitic but they do not know how to respond. Empowering students through education and knowledge is the only solution to the growing epidemic of anti-Semitism on campus.”
In the case of Obsession, a previous Kopping and Shore collaboration, that video is long on violent footage, heightened by ominous background music, and short on any constructive solutions. There is certainly an area where anti-Israel sentiments veer into vile anti-Semitism; but Crossing the Line looks like another hyperbolic effort to stir up fear (with the trademark spooky music), a la Obsession, again with scant attention to building inter-ethnic and inter-religious bridges. — Mordecai Specktor