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British Director Cancels Israel Trip in Protest

   VOA News 18 October 2010
   Director  Mike  Leigh  poses during a photo call for the film 'Another
   Year'  -  at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern
   France, 15 May 2010 (file photo)

Photo: AP

   Director  Mike  Leigh  poses during a photo call for the film 'Another
   Year'  -  at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern
   France, 15 May 2010 (file photo)

   British  film  director  Mike  Leigh  has canceled a trip to Israel to
   protest against a proposed loyalty oath.
   Israel's Cabinet last week passed a bill that would require non-Jewish
   immigrants  to  pledge  loyalty  to  a "Jewish and democratic" state -
   language seen as discriminatory toward Israel's Arab minority.
   Leigh, the award-winning director of Naked and Secrets & Lies, said he
   was  no longer prepared to take part in the "great masters" program at
   the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem.
   In  a  letter  to  school director Renen Schorr, Leigh, who is Jewish,
   said  he  opposed Israel's policies toward Palestinians and called the
   loyalty oath the "last straw."

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