Hundreds protest threats to close Jerusalem cinema
More than 600 people attend rally outside Lev Smadar Cinema in capital's German Colony neighborhood. 'People don't want to lose the fabric of their identity in favor of economic real estate initiatives,' says film director Renen Schorr
The rally's participants included concerned residents, intellectuals, and a young representation of activists, who have been engaged in raising the public awareness of the matter for several weeks now.
The event ended with a screening of a Micha Shagrir film about the history of Smadar Cinema, alongside films about Jerusalem produced by the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School.
"This is rare civil activism," one of the organizers said, with the hopes that a private initiative accompanied by public protest and civilians' activities would lead to a change.
Battle over Lev Smadar (Photos: Guy Assayag)
"This is an important event, and it is encouraging seeing so many people fight for a cultural stronghold," film director Renen Schorr, director of the Sam Spiegel school, told Ynet.
"There is a huge response because people don't want to lose the fabric of their identity, which is their pride and an important part of daily life. People don’t want this to be taken away from them in favor of economic real estate initiatives. They want a share in designing the place they live in, and I believe this is wonderful."
Schorr added, "This is a special cinema, unduplicated, with its own color. People have had enough of supermarkets and I can understand them. This is basically the last show of a place which is Jerusalem's Cinema Paradiso, a place people connect to on an emotional level, and this is why people are stepping out of their indifference in order to fight its war."
Not just a cinema
Among the other speakers at the event was Ariel Hirshfeld, who spoke about the authenticity of the cinema and the public protest raised by the threat to shut it down.
"This is a place with its own color and smell. It's part of the necessary secular existence of what was once the Jerusalemite spirit, which is gradually decreasing with the entry of religious people into secular neighborhoods on the one hand, and real estate sharks strangling it on the other hand."
The war over the cinema is being organized by the Hitorerut ("waking up") group, which is working to rejuvenate and renew Jerusalem. At the same time, a group of intellectuals, lawyers and businessmen living in the city has also taken up the gauntlet, getting some 4,600 citizens to sign a petition saying they are willing to buy shares in the cinema in order to keep it open.
'Don’t turn cinema into a real estate project' (from the event)
At the same time, Jerusalem council members, headed by Pepe Alalo of Meretz, are leading a process on the regulatory-municipal channel, in a bid to declare the cinema a site for preservation.
"We must stop the cinema from turning into real estate," Alalo told Ynet. "We don’t care who the owner is or who buys the property, as long as this building remains a cinema.
"We must remember that all of the cinemas in Jerusalem have in fact closed. This is an unfortunate phenomenon which cannot be solved, as these are private assets. Nonetheless, it’s a different story with Smadar.
"This place has existed for 81 years. It served as a cinema even before the State's establishment. This counts for something. We don’t have so many civilian assets which continued their lives for so many years. Those which are left must be protected."
Alelo added, "I held a work meeting with the city's engineer and with legal advisors, and the conclusion is that the place must be recognized as a building for preservation. I think it's our duty as a municipality, which is not only responsible for the real estate but also for civilian life and the public's sentiments – to do something."
Jerusalem's preservation committee and planning committee are scheduled to convene this week to discuss the issue.
