Readers from the greater Toronto area surely know that tonight (Monday) will see the debut of the “Bibi Files” documentary on Benjamin Netanyahu in the Toronto International Film Festival. Taken from the film’s website: “The Bibi Files is an urgent journalistic exposé, based on never-before-seen leaked footage and new interviews with key Israeli figures, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu’s former spokesman Nir Hefetz, former Shin Bet leader Ami Ayalon, and investigative journalist Raviv Drucker.
“The film details the corruption cases that resulted in Netanyahu being indicted for charges of breach of trust, bribery, and fraud in 2019. The cases also implicate his wife Sara and son Yair. Those cases have dragged through the court system without resolution. In the past, Israeli leaders indicted for corruption have resigned, but Netanyahu retained power by forging alliances with staunch right-wingers who now serve as cabinet ministers. Netanyahu attempted to take greater control of the Supreme Court of Israel, which led to large-scale street protests from January to October 2023”.
A bit too late, Netanyahu asked only today (Monday) from Jerusalem’s District Court to block the airing of footage of his investigations in the film. However, a short while after being filed, the request was rejected by judge Oded Shacham, citing the fact that news of the film was readily available on September 3rd, so there is no room to order the cancellation of the screening today. Can a Jerusalem District Court decision even hold any jurisdiction in Toronto? Luckily, we don’t have to find out.
On Friday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir decided to take a provocation tour of the Tel Aviv beachfront. As one does, he did so in suit pants and a buttoned shirt with his pious wife Ayala. As he was walking with his security detail, answering those who yelled out harsh words at him, a clump of wet sand was thrown in his general direction from a young woman bather in the water, a few grains of sand reaching his broad back. The police then went berserk, turning the beach area into a sterile area and directing the Tel Aviv lifeguards to forcibly bring the woman to the shore, handcuffing her hands and legs and taking her into custody in a police car.
As the Sabbath entered, it transpired the officers took the suspect, 27-year-old Noa Goldberg, on a four-hour ride to nowhere in an attempt to dissuade and deceive supporters who came to Israel’s women’s prison only to be told that no one knows where she is. Goldberg’s mother told the press her daughter has epilepsy and should be given her medication soon. After spending a night in prison, Goldberg was brought to the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court and released to custody. Yes, just like Aviad Frieja who mistakenly killed Yuval Castelman in November 2023. The Israel Police thinks both pose the same menace to society.
If this selective punishment of antigovernmental activists and slap-on-the-wrist reactions to serious wrongdoings looks intentional - it is.
Ha’aretz police correspondent Josh Breiner revealed that “The security secretary of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, instructed police officers to contain the riots at the Beit Lied base following the arrest of soldiers on suspicion of abusing a Palestinian detainee, and to refrain from using force in the process... None of the rioters at the army bases were arrested or summoned for questioning, neither on the day of the break-in nor in the time that has passed since then, although the actions were documented”.
Even the Jerusalem Post, who cannot be blamed for bleeding heart liberalism, wrote in today’s editorial: “There’s a good case to be made that under Ben-Gvir’s tenure, which began in late 2022, the police are regularly reluctant to arrest right-wing perpetrators of violence, ranging from extremists who attacked trucks bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza to mobs who stormed two army bases this summer after IDF reservists were detained on suspicion of having sodomized a Palestinian prisoner.
At the same time, the police have been heavy-handed and quick to arrest protesters who have been gathering for months demanding a ceasefire deal that will bring the hostages home, a move that Ben-Gvir and his coalition partners oppose”.
To sum up this horrible ordeal, in which many people see an Argentina-style “Dirty War” waged against law-abiding citizens, we quote Tweeter Yotam Becker: “It's a bit hypocritical that someone who preaches settlement on the land of our ancestors is so stressed when a little bit of the land of our ancestors is settled on him”.
