French Arabs attack Israeli director at film showing

Youths violently assault Yariv Horowitz, director of "Rock the Casbah" after screening of film last week, 'Commentator' reports.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
Casbah370 (photo credit: Yoni Hamanchem )
Casbah370
(photo credit: Yoni Hamanchem )
BERLIN – French Arab youths assaulted Israeli film director Yariv Horowitz last week at a film festival in southern France.
The acclaimed director of the film Rock the Casbah lost consciousness as a result of the attack following the screening of his film last week. The British-based news website The Commentator reported on Thursday that “after recovering from the blows he received, he returned to the festival area in ‘good condition.’” The film festival took place between March 18 and 23. It is unclear on which day the mob of youths attacked Horowitz.
Horowitz’s film Rock the Casbah won the Special Prize of the Jury for Best Picture at the Aubagne International Film Festival in southern France. The film festival also awarded a prize to Israeli singer and musician Assaf Amdursky for the film’s music.
According to The Commentator, the French authorities believe the attack was racially motivated.
Horowitz wrote on his personal website that the film is “a project that I always wanted do.” The films stars Yon Tumarkin, and covers the lives of young soldiers in the Gaza Strip during the violent uprising of Palestinians in the first intifada in 1989.
He writes that his film is “a tribute to my childhood friends who served with me in the occupied territories.”
His film was screened last month at the Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, and won the prestigious International Confederation of Art Cinemas award there.
In the film, 18-year-old Tomer is sent into to Gaza where he struggles with his life as a soldier, and a member of a Palestinian family plays a role in the killing of an IDF soldier.
Horowitz served as a military photographer in Nablus in 1989.