'The Bibi Files' Controversy Reminds Us Where Netanyahu's Priorities Really Lie

A documentary offering a peek into leaked footage of interrogations from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's criminal cases offers few new details. But even if it tells us little we didn't already know, we needed the reminder that its creators and Netanyahu's legal team have given us

Linda Dayan
Sep 10, 2024

On Thursday, a new channel, or chat room, opened on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. Within a few days, it amassed over 9,500 members. However, this account wasn't trading in illicit arms or illegal drugs, but instead provided a different, although also contraband, service to Israelis. "Soon and exclusively on the Bibi Files channel. The full movie for download. All of the revelations and exposés."

"The Bibi Files" is a film produced by documentarian Alex Gibney and directed by Alexis Bloom, offering a peek into leaked footage of the interrogations from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's criminal cases. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday, but is restricted in Israel – these are materials from an ongoing trial, after all. Gibney told France 24 that Netanyahu was unlikely to give his permission for the screening, and that "There's a legal restriction at the moment in Israel, by agreement with the source."

Even the channel on Telegram – a platform best to known to Israelis as the one where gory videos of Hamas atrocities circulated freely, but also as a place to buy weed – wasn't free of these limitations. "Following legal advice – we'll wait with publishing [the movie] until further notice," said a message from the same (now deleted) account that posted the earlier announcement.

It should be said, as Haaretz reported, that the film offers few new details, and that most of the dirty details have already been splashed over front pages for years, in the form of transcripts. Although there is a particular charm to hearing a soothing, monotonous anchorman's voice read out Yair Netanyahu's rant against the police "unbelievable, a witch hunt, spilling blood. And Stasi. Gestapo. A police state. Mafia" hearing the outburst in the original tone and cadence must be exciting. But that will only get a well-informed viewer so far if they are seeking revelations.

Source : Haaretz

link : https://archive.md/JXKPf
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More :

https://www.timesofisrael.com/revealing-leaked-police-footage-new-film-aims-brutal-lens-at-netanyahu-amid-war/



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