Israel film censors ban 'Passover Plot'

AS THE result of protests by Christians, the Israel Film Censorship Board has banned the film "The Passover Plot" on grounds that it is offensive to part of the population because it attacks basic Christian beliefs.
The film, based on a book of the same name by Hugh Schoenfield, theorises that Jesus planned his crucifixion, intending to take death with drugs in order to appear to rise from the dead, but he was foiled by the Roman soldier who pierced his heart with a spear.
Yehosh ua Just man, chairman of the censorship board, commented on the ban: "If we had to act on a film which attacked the Jewish faith in the same manner, we would certainly ban it."
"The Passover Plot" was filmed in Israel a year and a half ago. Despite numerous protests by Christians at the time of the filming, the government said it had no legal grounds to prevent it.
Distributors of the film protested against the censorship board's decision and threatened to have a special showing for journalists to show what they called the arbitrariness of the decision. It is considered highly unlikely however, that the ban will be reversed.
Mr Justman said the decision was "not taken lightly", He added: "lf the producer cannot understand the reason for not allowing this film, he probably does not understand the film film has no British distributor and is unlikely to come to Britain in the near future.