Here’s why Israelis are angry with Netflix over streaming movie ‘Farha’

A Jordanian film ‘Farha’ has been facing a backlash from Israel over its screening in the country.

The survival thriller movie will be available for streaming on Netflix soon and here’s why it is facing a backlash by Israelis.

Farha

Directed by Darin J. Sallam, Farha centres on the experiences of a girl, 14, who is locked in a storage room by her father during the events of the Nakba, the Arabic term for the ethnic cleansing and displacement of about 700,000 Palestinians.

When nascent Israeli soldiers come to the village, Farha witnesses the killing of her entire family, including two small children and a baby, through a crack in the pantry door.

Cast

Karam Taher as Farha

Ashraf Barhom as Abu Farha

Ali Suliman as Abu Walid

Tala Gammoh as Farida

Sameera Asir as Um Mohammad

Majd Eid as Abu Mohammad

Firas Taybeh as Farida’s Father

Condemnation

Many Israelis have expressed outrage and terminated their Netflix subscription after the streaming platform announced that it would upload the film ‘Farha’.

Avigdor Lieberman, the secular right-winger serving as finance minister in Israel’s outgoing government, has suggested withdrawing state funding from a theatre in Jaffa that plans to show the film.

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“It’s crazy that Netflix decided to stream a movie whose whole purpose is to create a false pretense and incite against Israeli soldiers,” Lieberman said in a statement.

Israel’s culture minister Chili Tropper said the film shows ‘lies and libels’, and Al Saraya planning to screen it “is a disgrace”. “I call on the theatre’s management to change their decision to screen the film,” the minister added.

Israeli atrocities and Palestine

‘Farha’ is not the first movie to show Israeli atrocities in 1948, when more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes.

Most recently, Israeli director Alon Schwarz faced backlash from Israelis over his 2022 documentary on an alleged massacre of Palestinians in Tantura, a coastal Mediterranean village in the northwest of what is now Israel.