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Israeli Director Criticizes Calls for Film on War to Be Boycotted From Venice Film Festival
Director Amos Gitai attends the ”Why War” photocall during the 81st Venice International Film Festival at Palazzo del Casino on August 31, 2024 in Venice, Italy. Photo: Daniele Cifalà via Reuters Connect
Israeli director Amos Gitai criticized on Saturday the nearly 350 members of the film industry who wanted his film to be boycotted from the Venice Film Festival.
“Why War,” which made its world premiere on Saturday out of the competition, was inspired by a correspondence in the early 1930s between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about how to avoid war. The film “traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.” It was co-produced in Italy and shoot in Vienna, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Paris.
“Why War” and Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”) was the focus of an anti-Israel open letter signed by figures in the film industry and published on the opening of the Venice Film Festival last week. They claimed the films were “created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” They further slammed the Venice Film Festival for showcasing both films, saying they are against “the artwashing of [Israel’s] Gaza genocide against Palestinians” at the prestigious film festival.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Gitai said “Why War” did not receive any funding from the government of Israel and insisted that those who wanted the film boycotted from the Venice Film Festival had not even seen the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He further noted that his film examines the topic of war in general, and not “the intoxicated Israeli-Palestinian relationship.”
“The film is not actually focused on Israel-Palestine, although they love always to think that they are the center of the world,” Gitai said. “There is no center of the world. The planet is round. [It’s] a very important conflict, but they are not the only one on the planet.”
“Everything is based on these great two thinkers,” he added. “Karl Marx probably inspired Albert Einstein, because it’s a very Marxist piece about money and greed, or industry. Freud is about the human soul and why these smart animals want to make war.”
In a previously released “director’s statement” about his film, Gitai said “Why War” does not feature any iconography or photographs from war and the destruction it causes because he believes that just further amplifies war. Regarding the current Israel-Hamas war, the director said on Saturday that he thinks current media coverage on the situation, from both Israel and the Palestinians, just makes the conflict worse and “prolongs the war.”
“If we look at Israeli TV, they will only show you atrocities of Oct. 7, the rape of the women, the burning of the kibbutzim. If I’m a normal Israeli and I see these images, I’ll say, ‘Let’s kill them all,’” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “[And] the Arab networks, Al Jazeera, will show you just the destruction of Gaza, so the savagery and the destruction of tens of thousands of homes in Gaza and the killing of tens and thousands of people … that most are not terrorists … civilians, children. There is now polio, a lack of food. [If I’m] a Palestinian and I only see these images, they will not see the Israeli images, [I would] say, ‘Let’s continue the war.’”
“The iconography prolongs the war so we decided to make an anti-war film without images of war,” he added. “We need to find new ways of rebuilding this beautiful region … even in spite of the wounds and the tragedies and bad memories, we need to build something different. This cannot go on.”
The director also reportedly said the Hamas terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government both need to be removed from power in order for there to be peace in the region.
“The two groups have to understand that the proposition of being under Hamas is not a good proposition. There will be no rights for women, no Christians of the Orient, no LGBT rights, nothing. The Iranians already went this way when they got behind Khomeini and they’re stuck with it,” he stated, referring to the Islamist regime currently ruling Iran. “We the Israelis have to get rid of the extremist, nationalist, right-wing, racist, ultra-religious government that we have. The two groups have to do some cleaning on their stuff and then maybe a new bridge can be constructed. It’s not there now but we have to keep the idea that one day, it will come, and I think it will come.”
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Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears
The Telegram logo is seen on a screen of a smartphone in this picture illustration taken April 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin.
Authorities in two Russian regions have blocked the Telegram messenger because of concerns that the app could be used by enemies, a regional digital development minister was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency on Saturday.
Dagestan and Chechnya are mainly Muslim regions in southern Russia where intelligence services have registered an increase in militant Islamist activity.
“It (Telegram) is often used by enemies, an example of which is the riots at the Makhachkala airport,” said Yuri Gamzatov, Dagestan’s digital development minister, adding that the decision to block the messenger had been made at the federal level.
Gamzatov was referring to an anti-Israel riot in Dagestan in October 2023, when hundreds of protesters stormed an airport to try to attack passengers arriving on a plane from the Jewish state. No passengers were injured, and authorities have prosecuted several people over the incident.
News of the plane’s arrival had spread on local Telegram channels, where users posted calls for antisemitic violence. Telegram condemned the attack and said it would block the channels.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the blocks in Russia.
Based in Dubai and founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, the messenger has nearly 1 billion users and is used widely in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Moscow tried but failed to block Telegram in 2018 and has in the past demanded the platform hand over user data. Durov is under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organized crime on the app.
Gamzatov, the minister in Dagestan, said Telegram could be unblocked in the future, but encouraged users to switch to other messengers in the meantime.
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Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.
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Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled
A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: Mary Altaffer/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s interim president said the school is working to address the “legitimate concerns” of US President Donald Trump’s administration after $400 million of federal government grants and contracts to the university were canceled over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
In an announcement on Friday, the government cited what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus as the reason for pulling the funding. The university has repeatedly been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president, said in a late-night message to alumni on Friday. “To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
The Trump administration said the canceled funding is only a portion of the $5 billion in government grants that has been committed to the school, but the school is bracing for a financial hit.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong said.
Federal funding accounted for about $1.3 billion of the university’s $6.6 billion in operating revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Columbia financial report.
Some Jewish students and staff have been among the pro-Palestinian protesters, and they say their criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. Minouche Shafik resigned last year as Columbia’s president after the university’s handling of the protests drew criticism from pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.
The administration has declined to say what contracts and grants it has canceled, but the Education Department argues the demonstrations have been unlawful and deprive Jewish students of learning opportunities.
Civil rights groups say the immediate cuts are unconstitutional punishment for protected speech and likely to face legal challenges.
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