Israelis cancel Netflix subscriptions over ‘blood libel’ movie

Israelis have been canceling their Netflix subscriptions in the past week in protest of the Jordanian produced movie “Farha”, which shows Israeli soldiers executing innocent Palestinian women and children during the 1948 between Israel and Arab states. 

The movie, which says its “inspired by true events”, revolves around a young Palestinian girl named Farha who finds herself locked in storage room after Israeli soldiers enter her villa. The girl witnesses them executing a Palestinian family, leaving their baby to starve to death so as not to “waste a bullet.”

Shortly after the movie was released, Israeli ministers lambasted it for spreading “lies” about the war, which uprooted some 700,000 Palestinians.

Arab-Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad said he was canceling his Netflix subscription in protest of the movie which he called “shocking” and that would turn any person without knowledge of the conflict into an “Israel hater.”

“This is blood libel that will certainly increase antisemitism and incitement against Israel,” he said, calling on people to cancel their subscription as well.

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman also reacted strongly to the movie saying “It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretense and incite against Israeli soldiers.”

Culture Minister Chili Tropper said the movie was showing “lies and libels.”

The controversies surrounding the 1948 war continues to divide Israelis and Palestinians to this day, including scholars.

Atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians in places like Ramle and Deir Yassin have, however, been accepted as fact by revered Israeli historians like Benny Morris, whose research on the war is part of the curriculum in Master’s degrees like Security & Diplomacy at Tel Aviv University.

Historians also acknowledge the many Palestinian attacks and atrocities committed against Jews, with some 1,800 killed between November 1947 and mid-May 1948.