Two Israeli films that represent the Arab side of the Arab-Israeli conflict have been nominated for the best documentary Oscar at the upcoming Academy Awards.
The two films are "The Gatekeepers" by director Dror Moreh and "5 Broken Cameras" by PA Arab filmmaker Emad Burnat and Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi.
"Gatekeepers" features six former leaders of the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) who shed some light about the ISA's activities and the dilemmas which accompany them.
One of the former Shin Bet leaders featured in the film is Yuval Diskin, whose remarks in the film, as published by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper last week caused a media storm in Israel.
Diskin lashed out at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the film, portraying him as weak, out of touch, and a danger to Israel’s security.
He said that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak “are too weak” to take military action to improve the situation vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Diskin charged the government with “upgrading Hamas and humiliating Abu Mazen,” a reference to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The second Israeli film that was nominated in the documentary category, "5 Broken Cameras", shows PA Arabs in their weekly struggle against the fence in the village of Bilin.
Arabs, encouraged by leftists and anarchists, hold weekly protests every Friday in both Bilin and Na'alin. The rioters engage the IDF and Border Police in clashes for the purpose of disseminating propaganda footage to the world.
Much violence regularly occurs during these protests and is initiated by the demonstrators, who injure soldiers who attempt to use non-violent means such as water and tear gas to disperse them.
The heads of the Otzma LeYisrael party, Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben-Ari, denounced the films on Thursday as "two Palestinian propaganda films disguised as Israeli documentaries."
They added, "Given the flood of self-hatred films one can only be surprised that only two were nominated. The Palestinian propaganda film '5 Broken Cameras' can easily win any terrorist film festival. Israeli filmmakers have discovered the formula that says that the more you discredit the IDF, the greater are your chances of winning. Israel should renounce the film and present it as a film by Hamas."