The Bibi Files (2024)
Directed by Alexis Bloom
Toronto. Screened the censored documentary offering an inside look into the corruption charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu through leaked police interrogation videos.
by Marco Pasciuti
Before the investigators, employees and collaborators show discomfort: “I thought it was wrong,” the housekeeper says through tears, “but what could I do? They told me to do it. I’m afraid my parents will find out and be ashamed of me.” The masters, however, show no embarrassment. He strings together dozens of “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember,” responding arrogantly to those who ask him about a bag used to hide a $1,100 Cohiba box gifted by a billionaire friend. His wife snaps back harshly at a police officer: “Your evidence is total bullshit.” This goes on throughout the documentary, which distills thousands of hours of footage leaked from law enforcement, now featured in The Bibi Files, screened in a premiere yesterday and Monday at the Toronto Film Festival. The documentary recounts the judicial inquiries involving Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara, linking the dots between the trials and the 41,000 Palestinians killed in the ongoing military operation in Gaza.
The film is not viewable in Israel and perhaps never will be: under privacy laws, Netanyahu would have to consent to the release of the footage that concerns him. On Monday, the Jerusalem District Court rejected the request to block the screening in Canada as well. Thus, that evening, a modest number of Israeli journalists were among the crowd filling the “Lightbox” theater in Toronto, and hundreds of people, according to the Times of Israel, connected to online groups claiming to offer ways to watch the film. The documentary covers more than just cigars. Friends also gifted Bibi and Sara jewelry and magnums of champagne. For prosecutors, this constitutes corruption. The charges also include fraud and what Israeli law defines as “breach of trust.” Case “1,000” concerns the gifts received from Israeli billionaire Arnon Milchan and Australian magnate James Packer in exchange for alleged favors. The focus of case “2,000” is on the preferential treatment the prime minister allegedly gave the owner of the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth to secure favorable press coverage.
Accusations similar to those in case “4,000″ are also included, focusing on an alleged deal with the former owner of the news site Walla. These events are narrated through interrogations recorded between 2016 and 2018. According to interviewed experts, Netanyahu’s determination to avoid justice, along with these actions, has compromised Israel’s security and shattered hopes for peace in the Middle East.
The project originated in early 2023, a period when director Alexis Bloom received the tapes, and Israel was rocked by street protests following the reforms the prime minister sought to place the judiciary under government control. “Netanyahu was trying to avoid the consequences of the accusations,” said Oscar-winning co-producer Alex Gibney. “So the leak was already tied to something bigger than just a recording of the interrogations.” Something that connects the gifts received from wealthy friends to the prime minister’s attempts to change tax laws and the personal favors he granted them. For example, when Milchan failed to obtain an extension of his visa in the U.S., Netanyahu called then-Secretary of State John Kerry, and the Hollywood producer’s visa was renewed. Over time, the allegations became so embarrassing that after the 2022 elections, major parties refused to form alliances with Netanyahu, who then turned to far-right extremists such as current Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both strong supporters of the Gaza war and West Bank settlements. “Our job was to connect the interrogations and the corruption trial to everything that followed,” Bloom told Variety. Bloom, the daughter of a Jewish father and a staunch supporter of Israel, said Netanyahu “tried to reform the Supreme Court and then waged a war that would never have happened if he hadn’t had such an extreme coalition.”
Eight years after the first accusations, Netanyahu is still in power. Massive protests continue to fill the streets, with demonstrators demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the hostages. The corruption trial is ongoing and could take years to conclude, having been suspended along with all other non-urgent cases due to the Hamas attack on October 7 and the resulting conflict in Gaza. “These recordings shed unprecedented and extraordinary light on Netanyahu’s character,” explained Gibney, adding: “His desperate need to stay in power led him to do terrible things, the evidence of which we are now seeing.”
* * *
The Prime Minister under fire even from his own side: “We know this script by heart here”
by Manuela Dviri
TEL AVIV — Monday was truly a dreadful day for Benjamin Netanyahu. After carefully avoiding for the last eleven months any visits to the families of soldiers killed in Gaza to offer the government’s condolences and his own during Shiva (the week of mourning), he finally decided to take the plunge. Armed with the formidable Mrs. Sara and accompanied by security personnel, he visited the Danino family—the parents and siblings of Ori, a young man kidnapped by Hamas at Nova and killed by Hamas after eleven months of cruel captivity last week.
The Danino family had been carefully chosen from among the lesser-known hostage families. They were certainly not involved in protests, quite the opposite: they were very quiet and reserved, and, moreover, religious, of Sephardic origin like many of Bibi’s supporters. The father, Elhanan, is a rabbi. He’s certainly not left-wing, nor, even less, an anarchist (according to Bibi, protesters are either anarchists or far-left extremists). In short, Netanyahu likely thought he would be safe in that house. Besides, Ori had also been a hero, saving many of his friends at Nova before being taken hostage. But life sometimes holds surprises, even for an old fox like our prime minister.
“My son was murdered in a tunnel that you built, under your control,” the father expressed his discontent and anger to the prime minister, as revealed in recordings of the meeting published on Monday by N12. “For 15 years, you’ve been in power and done nothing. On the contrary, you equipped them [Hamas] with tunnels and cash dollars, and you’re responsible for all their deaths” [referring to all the hostages].
The prime minister tried to respond with an old trick of his, reminding him that he absolutely understands, that he knows the suffering (because he too lost his brother, Yoni Netanyahu, the hero of Entebbe). But the slain boy’s brother delivered a harsh blow, reminding Netanyahu that he had built an entire career on the shoulders of that brother. “And he truly was a hero,” he added.
“I found everyone against me,” Netanyahu continued, as if to excuse himself—”the army, Biden, and of course Hamas, Hezbollah, and the whole rest of it… the atomic issue… and I asked myself why I’m still here. For the perks of power?” And Sara echoed, “But what perks?”
For once, he let slip the truth. The perks of power are precisely what the documentary The Bibi Files is about, coincidentally presented yesterday at the Toronto Festival. It talks about cigars, champagne, and much more. Here in Israel, we won’t be able to see it because it documents Netanyahu’s investigations for corruption and abuse of power between 2016 and 2018, up to October 7, the publication of which is forbidden in Israel. But through the film, the entire world will be able to see who Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara, and their son Yair truly are.
We already know.
Il Fatto Quotidiano, September 11, 2024
