Netanyahu loses bid to block film

Leaked video of police interrogations that led to indictments against the Israeli PM was screened for the first time at the Toronto Film Festival, in a documentary titled The Bibi Files. A Jerusalem court refused to grant an injunction against the film.

A protester wears a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a cigar and sitting near a paddling pool filled with red-coloured water during an anti-government rally in Tel Aviv.

Binyamin Netanyahu is notoriously fond of expensive cigars. When he was finance minister in 2005, he tucked one in his pocket as he approached a group of journalists and it set fire to his jacket.

Isaac Herzog, the housing minister who later became president, rushed to extinguish the flames with his shoe, prompting Netanyahu’s spokesman to quip that he “knows how to operate under fire”.

Almost 20 years later, Netanyahu, 74, now the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s short history, finds himself derailed again by his love of expensive cigars, alongside other luxuries that are at the centre of his legal woes. He faces one charge of bribery and three charges of fraud and breach of trust in a public office, all of which he has denied.

Leaked video of the police interrogations that led to two indictments was screened for the first time on Monday night at the Toronto Film Festival, in a documentary titled The Bibi Files.

Netanyahu, who is leading the war in Gaza while fending off pressure from Washington and at home to agree to a ceasefire, tried to have the screening cancelled on Monday but a Jerusalem court refused to grant an injunction against the film.

The Bibi Files is directed by the South African-born film-maker Alexis Bloom, and produced by the Oscar winner Alex Gibney, whose other works include documentaries on the TV character Tony Soprano, President Putin, and the Enron scandal. “I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man,” Gibney told the audience.

Bloom and Gibney clearly count themselves among the many critics of the prime minister who accuse him of subverting Israeli democracy by attempting to overhaul the judiciary as he faced trial.

To his supporters, he brings the right amount of defiance and scorn as the country finds itself at war with Hamas.

“Netanyahu’s character comes through very strongly in the recordings,” Bloom, a former PBS producer, told Variety. “I’ve really tried to find common ground in this film ... Netanyahu overstaying his welcome is something that many Israelis would agree on and many Palestinians too.”

Public polling in Israel would appear to support that view: a survey on Monday suggested that if elections were held now, the prime minister’s coalition would win only 49 of the 120 seats in Israel’s parliament.

Netanyahu has refused to resign until his case is resolved.

THE TIMES