Hotel Bars Controversial PBS Film on Palestinians

The newly opened Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel has joined several Los Angeles synagogues which have decided not to be the site of the first private preview in this country of the controversial documentary, “Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians.”

Joel Gayman, a Los Angeles publicist who was attempting to arrange the showing of the documentary made for the Public Broadcasting Service, said he “is saddened by the lack of commitment” on the part of the city’s Jewish community and the area’s newest hotel to grapple with the film’s thorny issues.

The 90-minute film, produced and directed by Jo Franklin-Trout, is a documentary about the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has a strong Palestinian perspective, according to Times television critic Howard Rosenberg.

Completed last September, it has been seen abroad, but not in this country.

Sept. 6 Broadcast

Gayman said Tuesday that he did not know if any concerted attempt was being made to lobby against the documentary, which PBS has rescheduled for broadcast on Sept. 6. Several previous broadcasts have been canceled.

Instead, he said, he thinks that there is an atmosphere of fear connected with showing a film with a strong Palestinian perspective in Los Angeles, a city with a Jewish population of about 600,000, second only to New York.

“People are running away from what they think other people might think if they show the film,” Gayman said. “But when people see it, they will say, ‘What are we yelling and screaming about?’ ”

Gayman, 44, is a board member of an Arab-Jewish dialogue group called the Middle East Cousins Club of Los Angeles. He said the plan was to show “Days of Rage” to a private audience of about 300 people, and then hold a panel and audience discussion afterward.

The panel was to have consisted of Dennis Prager, a conservative Jewish writer; Assistant Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell of the liberal Leo Baeck Temple of Bel-Air; Arab-American radio and television personality Casey Kasem, an activist promoting Middle East peace; and anthropologist Fadwa El-Guindi, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The group had also invited the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles to either produce a video rebuttal to the documentary or to supply a panelist. The consulate declined.

Lobbying Denied

Additionally, a spokesman for the consulate, Ilan Mor, denied there had been any lobbying against the film.

Gayman said he encountered weeks of frustration in attempting to arrange for “Days of Rage” to show at Leo Baeck Temple, Temple Israel of Hollywood and Temple Beth Sholom of Santa Monica.

But Leo Baeck’s Elwell said that Gayman made his proposal “at the last minute” when he knew that the temple’s hierarchy wanted to “preview” the documentary. She underscored that the decision had nothing to do with any bias.

Reputation Cited

“This synagogue is known for being a place which encourages (the airing) of controversial issues,” she said.

Then, last Friday, Gayman said he got a green light from the Santa Monica Beach Hotel, which opened its doors on Monday. But hotel management, he said, canceled the room almost at the last minute--Monday afternoon, when the showing was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today .

The hotel’s managing director, Lloyd Kirsch, said the hotel’s facilities simply were not ready to accommodate any groups, and that a lower-level employee erred in agreeing to the event. “This was one of those last-minute things on a Friday afternoon that a junior salesman got involved in,” he said.