Continuation from 1st part of this interview: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/interview-of-jean-pierre-lledo-film-director-and-writer-1st-part/

Laurent Cudkowicz: Sansal’s novel The German Mujahid deals with the Holocaust — a topic to which both Germany and Israel are highly sensitive. What support has there been for him in Israel?

Jean-Pierre Lledo: Shortly after the publication of that book, the Jerusalem International Writers Festival invited Sansal as guest of honor in May 2012. He accepted — an extraordinary gesture. Never before had an Algerian writer publicly traveled to Israel.

He told me — and I included this in my film Israel, the Forbidden Journey — that many Algerian intellectuals had visited Israel secretly, via France, with separate-visa documentation. But he chose to go publicly.

At the same time, the Prix du roman arabe was being awarded in Paris, financed by Arab embassies. That year, the jury — which included the writer Tahar Ben Jelloun — chose to award the prize to The German Mujahid, but the ambassadors refused to pay the prize money.

While shooting my film, I recorded a scene with Boualem in Jerusalem, on a small terrace overlooking the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. He was overwhelmed. His first words were:

“How could I have imagined being here, when in Algeria, the name ‘Israel’ is never spoken? Since 1962, our TV and radio only refer to ‘the Zionist entity’ or ‘the occupying power’ — never ‘Israel.’”

That conversation touched on the denial — or erasure — of Israel’s existence, but also on his personal connection to the country.

He said, simply:

“I love Israel. It’s not ideological. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come.”

So you can imagine my shock, my outrage, when I realized that the 2025 Jerusalem International Writers Festival — held from May 19 to 22 in the beautiful Mishkenot Sha’ananim neighborhood — didn’t once mention Sansal’s imprisonment. This neighborhood was the first one built outside of the Old City’s walls, by Sir Moses........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)