{"id":3887,"date":"2026-07-09T20:10:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:10:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:10:54","slug":"israeli-culture-minister-miki-zohar-mocks-film-industry-in-campaign-spot-vows-to-defund-anti-israel-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3887","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar Mocks Film Industry in Campaign Spot, Vows to Defund Anti-Israel Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tIsraeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has escalated his campaign against the country\u2019s film industry with a new Likud primary spot that mocks Israeli filmmakers as anti-Israel profiteers and vows to redirect public funding away from films he says \u201cblacken\u201d Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3885\">\u2018Toy Story 5\u2019 Surpasses $800 Million Globally<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tZohar, a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing Likud party, released the video as part of his campaign ahead of the party\u2019s primaries, just days before the start of the Jerusalem Film Festival which opens today with Moshe Rosenthal\u2019s family drama \u201cTell Me Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe video, released on social media, depicts a film set where Israeli filmmakers gleefully stage increasingly grotesque scenes of soldiers abusing Palestinians \u2014 stealing a balloon from a child, running over pita bread with a tank and destroying an elderly Palestinian woman\u2019s plants \u2014 while a director urges the actors to make the soldiers appear \u201cmore evil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIsraeli filmmakers are portrayed as eager to expose the supposed evils of the Israeli army to the world, while doing so for government money. <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cFor years, the formula was simple: Defame Israel and receive a check from the government,\u201d Zohar says in the clip. \u201cNot anymore.\u201d The minister goes on to say that the reform he initiated \u201ctransfers our money from films that Israel haters love to films that Israelis love,\u201d adding, \u201cThis is the end of the era where Israeli soldiers are blackened at the expense of Israeli citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe spot marks a further escalation in Zohar\u2019s long-running confrontation with Israel\u2019s film community, which deepened after the country\u2019s Ophir Awards selected \u201cThe Sea,\u201d a drama centered on a Palestinian boy, as best picture and Israel\u2019s Oscar submission earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3884\">Music Industry Moves: T.I. Strikes Publishing Deal With Reservoir, Primary Wave Partners With Foreigner\u2019s Mick Jones<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tZohar, a member of Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party, moved to halt government funding for the Ophir Awards after the film\u2019s win, arguing that taxpayer money should not support works he deemed disrespectful to Israel\u2019s military. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tZohar\u2019s position has alarmed many in the Israeli cultural sector which has long been one of the country\u2019s most internationally visible cultural exports \u2014 with filmmakers including Lapid, Samuel Maoz, Joseph Cedar and Ari Folman winning major festival prizes and Oscar nominations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIsraeli filmmakers are already facing growing pressure internationally, with festivals even boycotting them over their perceived ties to the Israeli state. In June, more than 350 film industry figures, including Natalie Portman, Justine Triet and Jacques Audiard, signed an open letter defending Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid after he withdrew from the FID Marseille film festival amid boycott pressure over his planned participation as a jury member.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat controversy underscored the bind now facing Israeli filmmakers as even some of the country\u2019s most outspoken critics of Netanyahu\u2019s government and the war in Gaza are being targeted as representatives of Israel; while at home, the Israeli government is slamming those same filmmakers as disloyal and undeserving of public support.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3882\">These Celebrity-Adored, Very Large Sunglasses Are the Hottest Summer Accessory<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar has escalated his campaign against the country\u2019s film industry with a new Likud spot that vows to defund them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3169,3170],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-israel","tag-miki-zohar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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