Naively, I thought that with Mohamed Bakri’s film “Jenin, Jenin” (2002), which mendaciously describes the Israeli army’s conquest of Jenin’s refugee camp during the second intifada, we had reached the pinnacle of historical distortion: when manipulations and lies – visual and verbal – coalesce and offer the viewer a false picture of what has happened. But Alon Schwarz, in his new film “Tantura,” definitely outdoes his mentor, at least when it comes to manipulation, schticks and tricks.
He did it again in his article “How to Cover Up a Massacre.” Like the film, the article suffers from an extreme dearth of integrity. It’s basically fraudulent.
I will begin with a personal comment. Some months ago, Schwarz interviewed me on camera over a period of two to three hours. To my surprise, when he sent me a copy of the film at my request (for one-time viewing), I discovered that I do not appear in it at all. Schwarz chose to disappear me. I know that filmmakers don’t like to waste their precious time or their footage, but that’s what Schwarz did. To me it is clear that he simply didn’t like what I said, because my comments weren’t compatible with the narrative about Tantura that he wanted to sell his viewers: a sensational, earthshaking tale – “the Jews behaved like Nazis” – that would garner him extensive publicity
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Benny Morris in Haaretz | Oct 13, 2022