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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.”
The post Israeli Director Criticizes Calls for Film on War to Be Boycotted From Venice Film Festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.