EGYPT'S Foreign Ministry on Sunday slammed as “unacceptable” French comments against Egyptian filmmakers who boycotted a film, whose director was Israeli, at a festival organised in Cairo. "The French stance is surprising for us. They should have done something to correct their mistake," Egypt's Foreign Minister spokesman Hossam Zaki said. He added that the Egyptian filmmakers did what they believed the right thing. Egyptian directors Kamla Abu Zikri, Atef Ahmed and actor Asser Yassin who were to sit on the jury of a French film festival in Cairo boycotted the event because of an Israeli entry, saying they refuse to normalise relations with Israel. They said they were boycotting the “Rencontres de l'Image” festival organised by the French Embassy's Cultural Centre (CFCC) in Cairo from April 8-15 after finding out that one of the directors, Keren Ben Rafael, is Israeli. "Commenting on Egyptian filmmakers' decision to boycott the festival is unacceptable," Zaki said. The CFCC removed the Israeli film from its schedule before it stepped back and re-scheduled it defying the Egyptian filmmakers. The festival programme had not mentioned Ben Rafael's nationality, only that she graduated from a prestigious French film school. The decision to quit “is not anti-Jewish; it is to protest against Israeli policies”, Yassin said. “I respect France's freedom to choose the films it wants to show in a festival it is organising,” he added, “but I also have the right to take a decision which I feel is right”. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel in 1979; but the decision has always been unpopular, particularly in cultural circles that reject such ties and refuse to show Israeli works in Egypt.
