PBS’ Alice Walker Film Includes Unanswered Defamation of Israel
The Public Broadcasting Service Master’s Series broadcast “Beauty and Truth” on Feb. 7, is a much publicized paean to Alice Walker. Walker gained renown from her 1982 novel, “The Color Purple,” which Steven Spielberg made into a film. Her agitation against Israel has kept her fashionable among segments of the media and academia. A review in the Feminist Wire describes how “In Walker’s life … beauty exists within a mosaic of truths alongside rabid institutional racism, patriarchy, misogyny, colonialism, heterosexism, and so much else.” The litany of “evils” listed here locates Walker in the American cultural landscape.
Toward the end of the 83 minute program, Walker discusses her adoption of the Palestinian cause. She planned to participate in the Gaza Flotilla in 2011, a show of support for Hamas-ruled Gaza. Walker compares the plight of the Palestinians to the black civil rights movement in the South, except in her opinion, Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is “worse.” While other controversial aspects of Walker’s life, like her estrangement from her daughter, are candidly discussed in the PBS film, her denunciation of Israel’s “apartheid” wall and claim that the Palestinians are “just daily humiliated… ground in the dirt,” are aired without any pushback or scrutiny of the validity of such accusations.
Viewers are not made aware of Walker’s history of issuing hateful statements about Israel and Zionism. During the flotilla campaign, she described Israel and the United States as “great terrorist organizations” and used inflammatory (and false) religious imagery to stir up hatred of the Jewish state. She called “Jesus, a Palestinian” and claimed he “is still being crucified.”
Speaking before a synagogue known for its leftist activism, she appalled attendees who viewed “the tone of her speech as being hateful and frankly blatantly anti-Semitic.”
The American Masters series has substantial support from Jewish donors. One wonders what these donors think about how PBS is using their financial gifts.
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