If you have doubts about showing the film.
When you watch the film, you will note that a synagogue, a mosque, and a church received The Billboard from Bethlehem.
This was not easy for them. Quite to the contrary, they thought and felt some of the same objections that you may now think and feel. And yet each group, having a deep desire to participate in something wonderful, came to believe that peace was more important than the objections or worries they held.
A few days before my departure for the West Bank, Rabbi Brockman had not yet fully committed himself to the project. Rockets were firing on Israel from Gaza, and the Rabbi listed for me every reason why he should not support the project. The church and the mosque were likewise concerned, for the Combatants For Peace had decided to write the phrase "End the Occupation" on the sign.
“But” the Rabbi told me, “it is for times like these that we have been put here.” And we agreed that receiving the sign and participating in this peace effort was not a blanket endorsement of each sentence and each opinion expressed by each person in the film.
Receiving this sign and this film is acknowledging our family. For this billboard and this movie is a love letter sent from Israel and Palestine; it is a post card from our brothers and sisters and their children: those who once were killing one another. It is a personal intimate memoir explaining how they feel about each other and how they feel about the conflict in which all of them fought and some of them died and all of them have suffered.
These are not crazy men, wildly shouting and playing tricks on us. They are IDF officers, fathers of children killed, sisters murdered, men who have seen the ugly side of war, patriots, prisoners, scholars, and courageous heroes whose voice is worthy of our time, and worthy of being heard. It is not our place, by waching this film, to endorse, to agree or disagree, but to receive their message with loving respect and admiration: to hear what they have to say, and take the risk that we might learn something new.
Seen in this light, it is almost impossible to refuse the film. For who has a greater claim to be heard, those of us here who pray about the holy land, or they who live, fight, and die there?
The film is a love story. It is their story. It is their message to us. We do not watch the film because we agree with each part of it, we watch the film because we want to hear what these courageous men have to say. And that should be enough.
If after viewing the film, you prefer not to have a showing, simply return it and we will refund you your payment.
In Peace,
Bruce A. Barrett, Director and Producer.
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Read the Interview with Rabbi Brockman
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Click Here to Learn more about
The Billboard from Bethlehehm
