Bayit Yehudi MKs won't 'shed tears' over Oscar loss

Reservists may sue creators of '5 Broken Cameras' for libel; MK Yogev calls to boycott documentary.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett 370 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem / The Jerusalem Post)
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett 370
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem / The Jerusalem Post)
5 Broken Cameras and The Gatekeepers' loss at the Academy Awards was no loss for Israel, Bayit Yehudi MKs said on Monday morning.
"The Israeli film, the anti-Israel 5 Broken Cameras did not win the Oscar. I did not shed a tear," Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett wrote on Facebook.
MK Uri Orbach (Bayit Yehudi) took to the social network to write a sarcastic message: "Make a face like you're disappointed that the two documentary films that 'represent Israel' didn't win the Oscar for Best Documentary. Oy, so unfortunate." 5 Broken Cameras, co-directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, features footage collected by the former starting in 2005, when his fourth son was born, that follows skirmishes between Palestinian villagers from Bil'in and IDF soldiers protecting the nearby town of Modi'in Illit and his son's growth.
MK Motti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) called to boycott the film, saying it "slanders Israel in a tendentious way and we should not cooperate with them." "The name of the film, 5 Broken Cameras, comes from the fact that many times people set up those cameras as a way to incite against the IDF and the state," Yogev wrote on his Facebook page Sunday evening, before the Oscars began. "This is like a broken telephone that in the end brings an incorrect sentence. These cameras only show part of the picture and twist it in a way that does not reflect the conflict." MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) cracked a joke about 5 Broken Cameras on Facebook, writing "meanwhile, we found Guy Davidi's reaction on [his film] not winning the Oscar" and posting a photo that appears to have been taken through a shattered lens.
Judy Mozes Nir Shalom, wife of Likud Vice Premier Silvan Shalom tweeted that it was "great to wake up and read that the members of the Academy shares my opinion. I hope those who were responsible for budgetary aid, which came from taxpayers' money, for films that want to bury us will pay with their jobs." Top of Form MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) expressed support for a campaign by reservists who are considering suing the creators of 5 Broken Cameras for libel.
After appearing on Channel 10 talk show "Orly and Guy" together with a reservist who served in Bil'in, Shaked called the soldier a hero.
"The whole studio was full of pride when he spoke," she stated. "The truth will win over those trying to twist it." The reservist in question is a member of Consensus: Guardians of the IDF Spirit, an NGO meant to anti-IDF attacks in the media, which started a campaign against 5 Broken Cameras this week.
Consensus put out a video animated by the popular YouTube cartoon "Srutonim" calling to "stop the incitement in Israeli cinema" and spoofing the documentary, as well as Waltz with Bashir and Beaufort, Israeli films that were nominated in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
Davidi responded to questions about the potential lawsuit in a phone call with "Orly and Guy," saying that his film "documents what happens and does not stage scenarios or distort facts. I have no idea about the rumors that people want to sue me, because I am focusing on our accomplishments." MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) denounced the right-wing politicians for enjoying the films' loss.
"The satisfaction that the MKs from the Bayit Yehudi and Likud draw from the fact that the films didn't win is disgusting," he stated. "Instead of being happy that an Israeli film is internationally recognized and promotes culture in Israel, they are busy trying to minimize public discourse and shut mouths." Horowitz added that "the government that apparently will be formed will not be better than its predecessor in everything connected to preserving Israel's democratic nature and will continue fighting against freedom of speech instead of for it." Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev made a play on the Israeli slang idiom "living in a movie," which means "delusional," in reference to Bennett's comments and reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is uninterested in seeing either of the Oscar-nominated films.
"Those holding the wheel – Netanyahu – or those who will sit next to the driver, thanks to [Yesh Atid leader] Yair Lapid's generosity, chose to close their eyes, not to shed tears and continue ignoring what is happening, even when the territory is on fire," he said. "Anyone who cannot watch the movies is living in a different movie than reality.