Sivan vs. Finkielkraut

Date: Saturday, 8 September 2007
Location: Documenta, Kassel, Germany
FREE. No RSVP necessary
This event is co-organized by Sina Najafi, Eyal Weizman, and David Levine for Cabinet magazine.

As a participant in Documenta 10’s “magazines project,” Cabinet was invited to mount a one-day event at Documenta. Our event was dedicated to re-examining Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan’s libel suit against French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut. This trial, which occurred in Paris in 23 May 2006, was translated and published in Cabinet no. 26 with an introduction by Thomas Keenan and Eyal Weizman.

The event consisted of several elements:

1. An introduction to the trial
2. An excerpt of the radio program during which Finkielkraut initially accused Sivan of being a Jewish anti-Semite
3. Excerpts from Claude Lanzman’s Shoah and Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi’s Route 181
4. A re-enactment of the trial in its entirety, directed by David Levine.
5. A debate with Eyal Sivan, Eyal Weizman, Thomas Keenan, and David Levine, moderated by Sina Najafi.