‘I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption’: controversial Netanyahu doc screens at Toronto
"Haaretz - Settlers Destroyed Their West Bank Village, Israel Forbids Them From Rebuilding It "... As furious protesters take to the streets, Netanyahu may well have reached his political dead-end""
Despite a legal attempt to stop it, documentary The Bibi Files, which shows leaked interrogation footage of the Israeli prime minister, made its debut at the festival
Radheyan Simonpillai in Toronto Tue 10 Sep 2024 21.33 AEST
A still from The Bibi Files. Photograph: Ziv Koren
Audiences got a look at Benjamin Netanyahu’s leaked police interrogation videos for the first time at last night’s world premiere of The Bibi Files. The urgent and incendiary documentary played at the Toronto film festival .. https://www.theguardian.com/film/torontofilmfestival .. despite the Israeli prime minister’s attempts to block its screening.
Israeli courts rejected Netanyahu’s request before the film – in which he is seen furiously denying allegations of bribery and corruption – was unveiled to a tense and vocal audience, many of whom were carrying signs reading “Bring Them Home” and “Deal Now”, referring to hostages held in Gaza.
The film, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney .. https://www.theguardian.com/film/alex-gibney , builds a rigorous and damning case, posing an argument close observers may already be familiar with: Netanyahu is prolonging the devastating war in Gaza – which has amassed more than 40,000 deaths – to avoid possible prison time stemming from corruption charges. A humanitarian crisis flouting international law is all about his self-preservation.
According to the documentary – which Bloom began working on before 7 October, when a source provided Gibney with the leaked videos – Netanyahu’s lawyer filed a motion to delay the trial currently scheduled for December. The lawyer cites the ongoing war as the reason.
“I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man,” Gibney, the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, told the audience following the screening. A member of what appeared to be a largely pro-Israel audience policed Gibney’s language, interrupting the producer to clarify that Netanyahu had not yet been found guilty. The attempts at seizing control of the narrative, both on screen and off, didn’t end there.
The interrogation videos shown in the film were recorded by police between 2016 and 2018 before they formally brought charges of corruption against Netanyahu. The footage includes the prime minister addressing allegations that he and his wife accepted expensive champagne, Cuban cigars and jewelry from the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Netanyahu is heard minimizing the champagne and cigars as simply gifts from a friend, while denying knowledge of the jewelry.
Several witnesses who worked for Milchan and Netanyahu are also shown speaking to police. They paint a picture of regular gifts expected by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in exchange for favours. One such favour includes a marginal tax break extension that benefited Milchan. Netanyahu argues his unusual interference regarding the tax break was for the good of the state, not Milchan. Meanwhile, the LA Confidential producer corroborated much of the witness testimony, though, in one excerpt, he gently asks police not to use the word “bribery” because it would make him look bad.
Netanyahu is also seen vehemently denying allegations that he signed off on regulations favouring the Israeli media mogul Shaul Elovitch. The prime minister repeatedly and dramatically calls one of his top aides, Nir Hefetz, a liar for saying so. Other witnesses argue Elovitch paid back the alleged generosity by allowing Netanyahu to directly influence coverage of his family on the popular website Walla.
The incriminating evidence in the interrogation videos has already been leaked and reported .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/25/hollywood-producer-testifies-at-netanyahu-corruption-trial .. on by Israeli media. But the videos will never be shown to the public (at least legally) in that country. According to Gibney, Israeli law grants privacy to subjects who have been photographed in official proceedings, which would make publication of the footage illegal. “It’s a peculiar law to Israel [that] doesn’t affect the rest of the world,” Gibney said.
Photograph: ???? ?????/Toronto film festival
He explained that they brought The Bibi Files to Toronto, as a work-in-progress, because it urgently needed to be seen while the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. But also because they are seeking distribution partners at the festival’s market, hoping to get the film released as quickly as possible for the world to see.
Though the documentary doesn’t reveal new information, Gibney explains that for an audience familiar with Netanyahu’s carefully stage-managed speeches, watching his agitation under interrogation, where his performance begins to crack, is illuminating. At various points when police officers confront him with incriminating testimony from his peers, Netanyahu raises fists and repeatedly slams his hand against his desk as if the banging will silence the accusations.
“Even in the interrogation videos, you see performances,” says Gibney. “But you see performances that are not as finely tuned; that are performed for an audience of three people; that he doesn’t think is going to get out of the room.”
The Bibi Files contextualizes the interrogation videos with a portrait of Netanyahu, whose career is built on stoking fear and promising security, and whose personal life is largely in service of his wife Sara’s turbulent moods and expensive lifestyle. Sara Netanyahu’s erratic testimonies and outbursts during testimony are also included in the footage.
Insiders like the Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, a childhood friend and more are on hand as talking heads. They connect the dots and reveal the long-running pattern of Netanyahu serving his own interests while clinging to power – from deliberate ploys to sabotage an alliance between the West Bank and Gaza by enabling Hamas, to his alliance with the violent far right and attempted overhaul of the supreme court to save himself from prosecution.
Bloom expressed disappointment after the screening that more people didn’t speak up on the record. She said she interviewed former chiefs of staff, heads of Shin Bet and others in senior positions under Netanyahu who would speak to her for hours about his lies and corruption. One of them compared his regime to the Netflix series House of Cards. “One said to me, ‘Well, you know, I might go into politics myself one day,’” Bloom recalled. “‘So I have to be careful.’”
The atmosphere at the premiere, which was announced just days before the festival began, was more anxious than usual. Added security, including a police canine unit, were at the scene. While the screening itself went off without a hitch, many in the audience appeared agitated during the post-screening conversation between Bloom, Gibney and Tiff’s documentary programmer, Thom Powers. Some yelled out for their turn to have a say, prompting Powers to call for some order and avoid overt statements.
Following the conversation, a visibly nervous Bloom was surrounded by a crowd and accosted by an audience member who claimed that she included “a bunch of lies” in the film. He was referring to the report that more than 40,000 people have been killed by Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
“You don’t know that,” he said before asking, accusingly, “Are you trusting Hamas?”
“You are putting a false narrative out there,” he warned.
The Bibi Files is screening at the Toronto film festival and is seeking distribution
This article was amended on 10 September 2024. There have been more than 40,000 deaths in the Israel-Gaza war to date, not 40,000 casualties, which includes injured people and is a far higher figure.
Related: Israel withdraws from UNESCO Israel’s withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018, the same date that the US ends its membership. [...]Israel has blasted UNESCO in recent years over the organisation’s criticism of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in 2011 2017 - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/30/israel-withdraws-from-unesco/
4:05 am today
By John Irish and Ingrid Melander, Reuters
US President Donald Trump. Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the UN culture and education agency UNESCO, repeating a move he had already ordered during his first term .. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/341468/us-israel-to-quit-unesco , which was reversed under Joe Biden.
The withdrawal from the Paris-based agency, which was founded after World War Two to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science, and culture, will take effect on 31 December, 2026.
"President Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO - which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
The State Department said remaining in UNESCO was not in the national interest, accusing it of having "a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy".
UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said she deeply regretted Trump's decision, but that it was "expected, and UNESCO has prepared for it".
The agency had diversified its sources of funding, receiving only about 8 percent of its budget from Washington, she said.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: "Unwavering support for UNESCO, universal protector of science, the ocean, education, culture, and world heritage."
"The withdrawal of the United States will not weaken our commitment to those who are fighting this battle."
UNESCO officials said the US withdrawal would have some limited impact on programs the United States was financing.
Tensions?
Israel welcomed the US decision to quit UNESCO.
The US State Department said one of the reasons for the withdrawal was UNESCO's decision to admit Palestine as a member state, which was "contrary to US policy and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization".
UNESCO officials said all relevant agency statements had been agreed with both Israel and the Palestinians over the past eight years.
"The reasons put forward by the United States to withdraw from the Organization are the same as seven years ago even though the situation has changed profoundly, political tensions have receded, and UNESCO today constitutes a rare forum for consensus on concrete and action-oriented multilateralism," Azoulay said.
"These claims also contradict the reality of UNESCO's efforts, particularly in the field of Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism."
Diplomats said it was felt at UNESCO that the withdrawal was inevitable for political reasons, given that Biden had brought the US back and had promised to repay arrears from the first time Trump pulled out.
UNESCO, whose full name is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is best known for designating World Heritage Sites, including the Grand Canyon in the United States and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
The United States initially joined UNESCO at its founding in 1945 but withdrew for the first time in 1984 in protest against alleged financial mismanagement and perceived anti-US bias, returning in 2003 under President George W Bush, who said the agency had undertaken needed reforms.
Same subject that Al Jazeera, but if i posted it and not the BBC article brooklyn13 would have raised his bigoted head. Nuts, isn't it, that the BBC would be ok, but the AJ not.
8 hours ago David Gritten BBC News
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the plans for 3,400 homes in the E1 area last week
Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project that would effectively cut off the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem and divide the territory in two.
Construction in the E1 area has been frozen for two decades amid fierce international opposition. Critics warn it would put an end to hopes for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.
On Wednesday, a defence ministry committee approved plans for 3,400 homes in E1. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who unveiled them last week, said the idea of a Palestinian state was "being erased".
The Palestinian Authority condemned the move, saying it was illegal and would "destroy" the prospects for a two-state solution.
It follows declarations by a growing number of countries of their intention to recognise a Palestinian state, which Israel has denounced.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.
The settlements are illegal under international law - a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice last year.
Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
The plans for 3,401 housing units in E1 - which covers about 12 sq km (4.6 sq miles) between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim - were approved by the Civil Administration's Higher Planning Council.
The defence ministry body also approved 342 units in the new settlement of Asael, a former outpost in the southern West Bank that was built without government authorisation but was made legal under Israeli law in May.
Smotrich, an ultranationalist leader and settler who oversees the Civil Administration, said: "The Palestinian state is being erased from the table, not with slogans but with actions."
"Every settlement, every neighbourhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea."
He also urged Netanyahu to "complete the move" and formally annex the West Bank.
Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in a move not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.
Opponents of the E1 project have warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would cut off the north of the West Bank from the south, and prevent the development in the centre of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
[Map showing Israeli settlements and built-up Palestinian areas in the West Bank around Jerusalem – highlighting the E1 settlement in red. Other Israeli settlements are marked in blue and Palestinian areas in light purple. The municipal boundary of Jerusalem is outlined in red. An inset map shows the region’s location within Israel and Jordan.]
The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now warned: "Under the cover of war, Smotrich and his messianic minority are building a settlement doomed for evacuation in any agreement. E1's sole aim is to sabotage a political solution and rush toward a binational apartheid state."
The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control, also condemned the approval of the E1 plans.
"This plan will isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, submerge it in massive settlement blocs" and fragment the West Bank "into disconnected enclaves resembling open-air prisons", the PA's foreign ministry said.
It also alleged that the approval constituted "official Israeli involvement in the crimes of settlement, annexation, genocide, and forcible displacement" – accusations that Israel has long rejected.
The PA's foreign ministry appealed for "genuine international action, including sanctions, to compel Israel to halt its colonial schemes (...) and respect the international consensus on resolving the Palestinian question".
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the E1 plans would, if implemented, "would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law and critically undermine the two-state solution".
"The Israeli government must reverse this decision," he added.
King Abdullah II of Jordan also rejected the E1 plans, saying: "The two-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace."
A German government spokesman said settlement construction violated international law and "hinders a negotiated two-state solution and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank".
There was no immediate comment from the US.
However, when asked by Israel's Army Radio on Monday about the Trump administration's stance on E1, ambassador Mike Huckabee said: "Whether or not there should be massive development in E1 is a decision for the government of Israel to make. So we would not try to evaluate the good or the bad of that."
"As a general rule, it is not a violation of international law. And it is also incumbent on all of us to recognise that Israelis have a right to live in Israel."
The July 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice said Israel's "continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful" and that the country was "under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence... as rapidly as possible".
Israel's prime minister said at the time that the court had made a "decision of lies" and insisted that "the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land".
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