Jordanian film on Netflix slammed as ‘libel’ against Israel

A new film on Netflix has been slammed as a libel against Israel for disparaging Israel’s military and depicting them as murderers.

The film in question is “Farha”, which depicts the so-called “Nakba” or “catastrophe”, the Palestinian term for the founding of Israel. Farha was released on Netflix this week and is available to stream in the UK. It is Jordan’s entry into the Academy Awards’ best international feature competition.

A controversial scene in the movie happens when a Palestinian teenager is locked in a storage room and witnesses a family being slaughtered by Israeli soldiers. Two small children and a baby are among the victims.

Farha is introduced as being “inspired by true events”, but the reality is it is based on the twice-removed testimony of a Palestinian refugee from 1948 who ended up in Syria.

“To me, it is ridiculous that Netflix chose to release a film whose entire purpose is inciting mockery against IDF soldiers,” Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman told Israeli media.

Outgoing Culture Minister Chili Tropper also criticized the film, saying it makes “false plots against IDF soldiers.”

In response, producers of “Farha” released a statement accusing the Israeli government of launching a disinformation campaign against the film.

“These attempts to silence our voices as Semite/Arabs and as women filmmakers to dehumanize us and prevent us from telling our stories, our narrative and our truth are against any freedom of speech,” reads the statement by Sallam and producers Deema Azar and Ayeh Jadaneh.

Unfortunately, we are unlikely to know the full truth about what really happened. However, we do know that there is a lot of anti-Israel propaganda around that falsely depicts Israel’s military as mass murderers of Palestinians. Israeli forces are not perfect, but they are doing their best in a tough situation to protect Israel and keep civilians alive on both sides of the conflict.