(Jaffa) An Israeli minister condemned Netflix on Wednesday for its decision to air a Jordanian film depicting alleged atrocities against Palestinians during the 1948 war that coincided with the establishment of the State of Israel.
Avigdor Lieberman, the finance minister in the outgoing government, also suggested stopping the payment of public funds to a theater in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, which plans to show the film.
Farhadirected by Jordanian filmmaker Darin J. Sallam, tells the story of a 14-year-old Palestinian girl whose village is attacked by Israeli forces, who are seen executing civilians.
The film will be available on the Netflix platform from Thursday after premiering at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.
“It’s crazy that Netflix has decided to release a movie whose sole purpose is to incite hatred against Israeli soldiers,” Lieberman said in a statement.
He also described as “unacceptable” the decision of Al Saraya Theater in Jaffa, which receives state subsidies, to screen the film. “Every measure at our disposal, including denial of funding,” is necessary “to prevent this appalling screening or similar films in the future,” Lieberman said.
For his part, Israeli Culture Minister Chili Tropper said the film showed “lies and defamations,” and called it a “shame” that the Al Saraya Theater plans to screen it.
“I call on the theater management to deprogram the film,” added the minister.
The film was finally screened Wednesday evening at the Jaffa theater, in front of which about fifteen people opposed to the screening demonstrated, noted an AFP journalist.
“Freedom of expression ends with anti-Semitism,” said Shai Glick, one of the Israeli protesters.
For her part, Dana, an Arab who came to attend the screening who did not want to give her last name, affirmed that “everyone in Israel [devait] to confront this part of history”.
Farha is not the first film to spark controversy over alleged Israeli atrocities in 1948, when more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.
Israeli director Alon Schwarz faced fierce criticism recently after a documentary about an alleged massacre of Palestinians in Tantura, a village northwest of what is now Israel.
Calls for more transparency about the conduct of then-nascent Israeli forces during the conflict have grown in recent years, including in Israel.