Video, black and white & sound installation
22 Min. 34 Sec., & Slide projection, 80 slides, colour. Gezeigt auf: Art 41 Basel. Inhalt: The work derives from a controversy around the classic Hebrew novella Khirbet Khizeh by Israeli author Yizhar published in 1949, in which he described the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their village by the Israeli Army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The story became a bestseller, was included in the Israeli high school curriculum in 1964 and adapted into the television film in 1978, titled "Khirbet Khizeh". On February 15th, 1978, the film should have been shown on the Israeli TV. 90 minutes before the showing of the film it has been cancelled by the Minister of Education and Culture due to its content shedding doubt on the Zionist narrative. The unprecedented cancellation of a TV show through the government prompted protests against censorship from a coalition of artists, authors, lawyers, parliament members, journalists and TV technicians. However, the public polemic for and against airing the film became a fight for the freedom of information rather than an argument about the content of the film. As result of this, TV newsmen vented their feelings by letting Israeli screens go dark for 50 minutes-the length of the controversial film, on the day after the Minister’s order. Archivierte Kopie (Memento vom 14. März 2011 im Internet Archive)
