After covering brutal wars, wandering in devastated areas and devoting his life to spreading the word of the injustices taking place in the world, the esteemed intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy finds himself believed in the prospect of resolving the most complicated and protracted conflict of all: the one between Israelis and Palestinians.
"The Avraham agreements, signed a year ago between Israel and important Arab countries, instilled in me a gust of hope," Levy, 73, explains in a special interview.
“This is a great miracle that has transcended religious controversy, an unexpected achievement following which everything suddenly seems possible.
"Until three years ago, no one would gamble that such agreements could be signed. Thanks to very few people with good will in Israel, the United States and Abu Dhabi, it suddenly became possible.
Sometimes the biggest thunderstorms recorded in the pages of history come thanks to a limited handful of people.
"I hope the same thing will happen between Israel and the Palestinians. That one day we will take revenge to discover to our surprise that some Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and French have brought about a solution to the conflict between the parties. Remember what I say: it will happen one day, as long as I live."
Levy, a French-born Algerian-born philosopher and philosopher, has visited the country many times and, he said, has been close to all prime ministers over the past five decades.
He is proud to talk about the special connection he has to Israel and the extraordinary sense of admiration he feels every time he visits again.
"Some of my best friends live in Israel. The last time I visited, at the beginning of the Corona plague, I traveled to Jerusalem. Every time I come to this city, I feel inspired. Excitement to the depths of my being. When I am there, I feel whole intellectually and spiritually.
"I love every piece of land and every piece of sky in the country, every grain of sand in the desert. I love the road that led me 54 years ago to David Ben-Gurion's house in the Negev. I love the Sea of Galilee, I love being in Safed. I really feel at home wherever I am in Israel. .
"All my life I have witnessed Israel's struggles for its existence, and the state is one of the main things that preoccupies me. We are the same age, and my life is woven into Israel's experiences. In my new film I present pictures from all my visits there over the years,
"I met so many prime ministers, from Menachem Begin to Yitzhak Shamir, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu. I knew them all. Shimon Peres was my very dear friend. I was close to him after we first met in the late 60s or early 70s, and he always is. "I had a friend and a mentor. Today I consider myself close to your new president, Yitzhak Herzog. I was very happy when the Knesset elected him, and I feel that we both share similar views."
What do you think of the new prime minister, Naftali Bennett?
"I think the change is good, I was in favor of it. I do not rule out Netanyahu's achievements, but in my opinion he was no longer the best option for Israel at that time, and I was happy to see the change. Israel is the model of democracy. "
This weekend, Levy will pay another short visit to Israel, this time as a guest of honor at the Jerusalem Film Festival, in its 23rd edition (from Saturday night and throughout the coming week).
On Sunday evening, Levy's new film, "Far Near," which was shot on the eve of the corona eruption in early 2020 and in the first months when the entire Western world went into closure, will be screened.
Levy and his camera crew documented in the film areas of suffering, killing and human anguish that bleed regardless of the epidemic, and did not receive any media coverage.
In his camera, he gives a poignant look at the severe humanitarian crises in the world, which he believes are much earlier than the corona crisis.
"I risked my life a whole year to shoot a film in which I try to present evidence of the dangers of humanity. Small events of small politics are meaningless to me," he clarifies.
• • •
We meet on a rainy day in Los Angeles, at a private screening of the film, at the end of which Levy gives me his book "The Desire to See" (which is also the name of the film in English) and smiles when I mention Israel.
He is a tall man who looks younger than his age, wearing an elegant black suit and a white button-down shirt without a tie.
During the conversation he listens to things through his eyes as well, and he gives his answers as a calm and considerate Parisian intellectual.
Contrary to the hope you have for a better future in the Middle East, regarding the world as a whole your perception seems to be different.
"I am not optimistic because I have seen America retreat so quickly. I have witnessed military intervention in Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere in the world, and I have found that they have been filled with hatred and cruelty of the West. All of this makes me feel miserable and sometimes hopeless.
"When I was young, I saw how the West stood for principles and focused on values. During the Cold War, for example, there was still a belief in some of the values that this inter-bloc struggle symbolized. It all faded away.
"The West invented the worst inventions, and also the best ones. It invented Stalinism and Communism, but also the cures for these diseases. In the West they invented modern racism, but there were also some Arabs who conceived the fight against racism. It is also European culture that produces Ideas - but able to think against herself. "
The recurring themes in your film are poverty and war.
"They are completely connected to each other. War creates poverty, poverty creates war. All my life I have seen the connection between them. In Somalia, for example, which is a place that very few Western media outlets have bothered to reach in the last 20 years. It's like the chicken and the egg. "Before the war, or the war comes before poverty."
Maybe there is an economic solution to this?
"Even if the world's big billionaires decide to donate a huge sum to cure the Third World from the famine, I'm not sure we would have gotten rid of the war. It's of course a dream scenario. It might be possible to get rid of poverty, "In mysterious parts deep in the human psyche, long before situations of civil unrest or motives of money or economy."
Some would say that "war is a lucrative business."
"I'm not sure there is anyone who benefits from war. Maybe just a few armed traders. I do not see how anyone can be richer out of a social disaster. In the long run wars make everyone poorer.
"I am one of those who believe that peace is the best way to make the world prosperous. Peace agreements, conflict resolution, real exchanges between people - for me it is the best way to enrich people, help the poor, raise the middle class, everyone.
"In the history of the 20th century and of Europe, the wars were periods of immense misery. Europe was close to a state of suicide in terms of economic prosperity. So no, I do not think there are those who benefit unless you are skilled in controversy in terrorism. War is bad for everyone.
"I know wars well, I've seen a lot of them. In the Middle East, in South America. I traveled to Colombia during the war on the Falkland Islands in 1982 and traveled around Asia during the terror of the Tamil Mute Tigers of Liberation in Sri Lanka. Every time I saw a war, I saw a rise in poverty. It is never a means to an end. "
In his film "Far Near", with refugee children in Greece.
"In the long run, wars make everyone poorer," Photo: Madison Films
Two weeks ago, the climate conference in Glasgow ended. The ecological crisis and the ways to solve it are the main concern of mankind?
"As a theorist, I do not believe there is a single solution to the issue. But in my opinion, genocide is the worst thing that threatens human beings. Genocide against Armenians, against Christians in Nigeria, Darfur and Rwanda, and of course the genocide of the Jewish people in the Holocaust.
"I am very concerned about climate change. I am a fighter for ecology and think the world should act at all costs and be required to address the issue. But I am very concerned that these pursuits may overshadow the misery, crime, massacres and sometimes genocide that continue to happen in the world. We must at the same time address both climate change and the wars and massacres that are taking place, and be very careful that one concern does not overshadow the other.
"The Corona Crisis was another event that revealed a huge inequality in the world. We have discovered that the great injustice is to be born in one place and not in another. This harsh reality.
"When I started editing my film, I had the idea to ask the big drug companies that produce vaccines to give us access to the prescriptions so that we could distribute them as a gift to residents in countries mentioned in the film, such as Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Bangladesh.
"I strongly support vaccines and their distribution in all countries, and I am still waiting for one of the big companies to take the initiative. I would be happy to be at its disposal and help, and even travel to distribute the donation myself. "They received the first portion - it's just disgusting."
• • •
Levy was born in Algeria in May 1948, nine days before Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the State of Israel.
His parents, Dina Siboni and Andre Levy, emigrated to France a few months after his birth.
His father founded a very successful timber import company, which he bequeathed to his son after his death in 1995, and Levy sold the company two years later for an estimated $ 750 million.
He attended the prestigious Louis XIV High School in Paris (a veteran institution whose graduates include Walter, Victor Hugo and Jean-Paul Sartre), and went on to pursue a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure.
Following the student strike riots and the political protest at the end of President Charles de Gaulle's tenure in the late 1960s, Levy first became famous when he joined the "New Philosophers" group in France.
After graduating, he served as a military correspondent covering war zones for the Kombat newspaper, founded by Albert Camus.
In one of his missions he was sent to report on Bangladesh's War of Independence from Pakistan, in what became a formative moment that inspired his first book (out of more than 30 he published over the years) and outlined the path he had chosen to take in his adult life.
"The French writer Andre Malrau, whom I admired, said in a television interview in 1971 that what was happening in Bangladesh was terrible, and that genocide was returning 26 years after World War II. A great humanitarian and activist who risked his life for the values he believed in when he enlisted in the Spanish Civil War against the Fascists.
"So, thanks to him, I was finally inspired to act. A man who at the end of his life is resourceful in the fight against injustice in the world - it gave me hope in humanity. I felt that human beings never lose hope."
In his new film, too, Levy returns to Bangladesh, and this time, too, he sees a visit there as a formative and formative moment.
"When I was in Bangladesh during their war of independence, when I was 20 or so, there was the only genocide in history where historians disagree about the extent of those killed. Some say 800,000 and some talk about 5 million. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped.
"Rape in war is for me one of the saddest and most heinous atrocities. I admit I can not explain it. What is the meaning of mass rape? To make women suffer even more? In Bangladesh in those years everything was done in secrecy, without world news coverage and indifference from other nations. "B decided to close their eyes and ignore human rights.
"After seeing that the women who were raped in the war gave birth to children, and the locals considered them cursed and denounced from the community even though they were victims, I brought this to the attention of Bangladesh's first president, Sheikh Mujibor Rahman, who was a traditional conservative Muslim. In these women, who are now national heroines, this is one of the great prides of my life.
"Some of those women are currently active in society in Bangladesh, and they remember that there was once a young French guy who contributed to the correction of this absolute injustice. At that moment I could have stopped, I had already reached a climax then."
• • •
Throughout the decades, Levy combined his travels around the world with his journalistic work, and from the beginning of his new film he presented leading newspapers that published his experiences and articles, such as the Wall Street Journal, the German weekly Stern and the Italian newspaper La Republica.
Levy holds honorary doctorates over the years from Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University.
He considers himself a fighter for Israel and a sharp critic of the discriminatory treatment that Europe shows towards the Jews.
He has previously argued that this attitude is an outgrowth of the attempt to demonize the Jewish people, due to the guilt that Europeans carry with them after the Holocaust.
In the 1980s, with the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. "I love every piece of Israel," Photo: GettyImages
As a declared Zionist, Levy was one of the first to warn against re-bubbling anti-Semitism in Europe since the 2000s, alongside the rise of radical Islam.
"I may have been one of the only French people to emphasize radical Islam as one of the greatest dangers of our time. I devoted an entire book to it back in 1994, 'Dangerous Purity.' "Radical Islam for democracy, civilization and the world. For me it is not new. You see it today in Paris, but it is happening all over the world."
What will save Arik Zamor, a right-wing French-Jewish writer and journalist, who often provokes storms in his extremist remarks against Arabs and blacks?
"I think it's just a bubble that will burst soon, it's not going to last long. It's meant to attract communication, and evaporate at some point. But it does a very dirty job. Dreyfus, and challenges the loyalty to France of the Sandler family, relatives of the victims killed in the 2012 shooting attack in Toulouse.
"Second, Zamor believes that it is impossible to be both a loyal Frenchman and a believing Jew, as the French Jews have been doing for about 40 years, their great miracle. For him, you have to be French and that is, to get rid of all your essence as a Jew. Demands to protect the Jews and Israel without it being dependent on loyalty to France. "
What, in your opinion, is the state of Judaism at the moment?
"Thank God, there are many Jews in places like France, America and South Africa who are loyal citizens of their countries and allow themselves to be committed and true Jews. Of course there is a rise in anti-Semitism, "This is the progress we have made in the world."
In the film you are seen visiting teenagers in a detention facility of Kurdish fighters against ISIS, and introducing yourself as a Jew.
"True, and only in the editing room did I realize that the boy who translated my words to his friends did not tell them I was Jewish, a word he actually did not want to say, and instead introduced me as a Christian. It gives an idea of the degree of anti-Semitism in such a miserable place. Be nice to me.It's a rotten place in the heart of humanity.
"For me, these boys are innocent, they are not to blame for what their parents did. Therefore, the fact that their innocence can be combined with the inability to pronounce the word 'Jew' - is for me a source of great sadness.
"Former President Donald Trump has claimed that terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS have their own facts, but the only truth is with us. For me, it is a poison I would like to fight while I have left to live. I want them to understand that there is one universal conception of truth. An act can be considered terrorism for one and a just struggle for freedom for the other - for me they are a scandal. Terrorism is terrorism, it is not a war of freedom. A freedom fighter never attacks civilians and does not aim weapons at them. Freedom fighters in France attacked the Nazis, never civilians. freedom fighters.
"It's one of the ideas I promote in the film, trying to help people agree on one logic. Otherwise you get to places of loss of humanity, and when that happens - the world loses its meaning."
As a proud Jew, will you celebrate the approaching Hanukkah?
"I am a devout and devout Jew, and I study the religion. But I would not say that I observe the traditions on holy dates. I do not celebrate holidays or family meals, except in cases where I am in the company of Jewish acquaintances - then I will celebrate with them. I observe my Judaism elsewhere "In the books I read and that I try to learn from as much as I can."
• • •
Levy lives in Paris ("I do not have a favorite place, but I like to live in this city") with his third wife, singer and actress Ariel Dombsel (68), whom he married in 1993.
From his first marriage to model Isabel Dutrilonin, in the early 1970s, he has an eldest daughter, the writer Justin Levy (47), who bore him two grandchildren, Susan (16) and Lucian (12).
From his second wife, Sylvie Buskas, his son Antonin-Balthazar (40), now a lawyer, was born.
What do you think about the generation of screens and social networks, do you agree that compared to previous generations, it is run selfishly and focused on care and brilliance?
"I'm not sure that's entirely true. In every generation there are those who do not follow a certain idea and pretend they do not have time to look for the truth. But I have known many young people all over the world who have a desire to see and know, who want to do and also know how.
"The Internet can be a source of ignorance and flood us with Pike News, but it's also a source of advancement of knowledge, and I know more young people who use it that way than the other way around. So I'm not so pessimistic about the next generation. I screen my new films in schools, Stimulates discussion among students.
"I know many of them will later read more in depth in books, newspapers and websites, try to learn and understand more. I believe that with the right tools in their hands, the younger generation are good people who may be able to heal the world more than we were able to."
With his wife, actress Ariel Dumbsell, Photo: GettyImages
When you're not busy with worldly things, what do you do in your free time?
"I love life. I have my pleasures and I define myself as a hedonistic person. I do not drink wine, but I do enjoy a good movie, I enjoy being in the company of good friends. Although most of my time is spent learning, studying and writing, I love being outdoors, in the sun".
At your advanced age, do you occasionally ponder retirement?
"No, never. Age does not matter, and it is never a topic of debate. When you watch my film, you see that I acted today just as I did at 35. I am like the historical figures in Judaism, who have power in their waists even in old age."
To read the article in English
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