Syrians Squelch U.S. Film Festival, Nixing Columbia Pix for Israel Ties

The American Film Festival that was supposed to open June 29 in Damascus but did not is this summer’s puzzler for Hollywood mystery buffs.

Intended as a token of improved relations between the United States and Syria, the film fest was abruptly called off by the Syrian authorities after weeks of organizing work by U.S. Ambassador Edward Djerejian and Najah Alator, the Syrian minister of culture.

The two officials had agreed on 25 movies to be screened, including cinema classics such as “The Wizard of O2” and “Gone With the Wind.”

There were also to be three films produced by Columbia Pictures Entertainment: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Awakenings” and “Glory.”

Three days before the opening, Alator informed Djerejian that on orders from top government authorities, the three Columbia films had to be withdrawn.

The ambassador refused and the festival was canceled.

A brief news story filed by the Reuters news agency caught the attention of Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

He contacted U.S. Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), who got in touch with the State Department. The report came back that the three films were vetoed by the Syrians because Columbia was on the Arab League’s secondary boycott list of companies trading with Israel.

That was curious, because Columbia is now owned by the Sony Corp. of Japan. Previously, the studio belonged to the Coca-Cola Company, makers of a soft drink bottled in Israel and therefore banned in most Arab countries.

Possibly the Arab League boycott office failed to update its list, Cooper speculated; or a well-publicized event 10 days before the cancelation may have aroused the Syrian leadership’s ire.

On June 16, President Bush spoke at a Wiesenthal Center dinner here, honoring actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his support of its work.

The president naturally referred favorably to Israel at a major Jewish function, and his remarks were reported by the international media.

The co-chairmen of the evening were the two top men at Columbia — Peter Guber and Jon Peters. (Peters had resigned that position a few days before, but showed up anyway, fulfilling his previously arranged role at the dinner.)

A corporate spokesman at Columbia Pictures was asked to shed some light on the curious events. After two days of deliberations, word came down from corporate headquarters in New York that the studio chiefs “declined to comment.”