The premiere at Cinema City Glilot was attended by many well-known figures,
By GREER FAY CASHMANAyelet Shaked holds introductory press conference at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem(photo credit: NOAM MOSKOVICH)
■ THE LIVES of many of Israel’s leading figures are interwoven on many levels. A dramatic reminder this month was at the Israeli premiere of the docudrama Sabena, which tells the story of the Black September hijacking on May 8, 1972 of Flight 571 – a Belgian Sabena passenger plane flying from Brussels to Tel Aviv.Reginald Levy, the brave British captain who piloted the hijacked plane, was the father of former longtime Jerusalem Post staff member Linda Lipschitz.Levy kept up a constant flow of conversation with the hijackers, moving from one subject to another in an attempt to avoid any violence while in flight. His natural concern for the safety of his passengers was exacerbated by the fact that his wife was one of them. The hijackers threatened to blow up the plane unless their demand for Israel to release 315 convicted terrorists was met.The premiere at Cinema City Glilot – whose owners Leon and Moshe Edery are also the proprietors of United King, which together with the Israel Film Fund helped finance the Keshet production – was attended by many well-known figures, including the main hero of the film and the rescuer of the passengers: former prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister Ehud Barak. The film is a combination of reenactment and archive footage.Barak had led the commando force which, disguised as airline technicians, approached the plane on the tarmac in Lod; one of the young soldiers in the elite squad under Barak’s command was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The technicians were able to convince the terrorists the plane needed repairs and were therefore able to come on board; they killed the two male terrorists and captured the two females.Barak attended the premiere with his wife, Nili Priel; his former wife, Nava Barak, was also in the audience, sitting with their daughters. For security reasons, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara – who are both movie buffs – were unable to attend, but Netanyahu did appear in the film.■ IN HER first appearance before the larger community of members of the legal profession, newly appointed Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was among the speakers at the 15th annual Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat last week. Also among the speakers was US Ambassador Dan Shapiro, who to his happy surprise met up with charismatic sexologist Dr.Ruth Westheimer, and was only too pleased to pose for photos with her.For Shavuot Shapiro was at the Yozma Reform congregation in Modi’in, where he spoke about the connection between the Bible and Jewish tradition, and the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution; there are quite a lot of similarities.Yozma is headed by Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon and Rabbi Nir Barkin; Shiryon is listed on various websites as the first woman rabbi in Israel. While she has been a rabbi since 1981, it was not in Israel that she was ordained, but at Hebrew Union College in New York.
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