Israel flap escalates as Toronto fest starts

September 10, 2009 Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Los Angeles-based founder of the Simon Weisenthal Center, told a hastily arranged Toronto news conference that the critics of the Israeli film spotlight were taking criticism of Israel to a new low. "Tel Aviv is one of the freest cities in the world, warts and all: a model city of diversity, freedom of expression and tolerance, for Arabs and Jews," Hier said as the Toronto festival kicked off with a screening of the British historical drama "Creation" at Roy Thomson Hall. The intervention by the two-time Oscar winner ("The Long Way Home," "Genocide") came as David Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman and Norman Jewison joined the chorus of supporters of the festival sidebar, who charged the growing artist-led protest with censorship.

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