Israeli Minister of Culture Miri Regev praised the non-selection of Foxtrot, a controversial Israeli film, at the Oscars, saying it was denigrating the army.
“This decision spared us a bitter disappointment and a misrepresentation in the world of the Israeli army,” she said Tuesday night on military radio after the announcement of the list of selected films.
The film complex and surreal Foxtrot director Samuel Maoz obtained last year the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Regev accused the film of lending a “ritual murder” charge against Israeli soldiers.
On Tuesday, Regev, who admitted not having seen Foxtrot, said his anger was not related to artistic issues but to the image of Israel he is projecting abroad.
“A film that misleadingly portrays Israeli soldiers as assassins and undermines the reputation of the Israel Defense Forces can not represent Israel,” she said.
Miri Regev, a member of Likud, Israel’s ruling right-wing party, has a tumultuous relationship with the Israeli artistic world and regularly lashes out at the largely left-wing cultural elite.
Miri Regev made a splash on the red carpet of the last Cannes Film Festival by climbing the steps in a long ivory robe representing a vast panorama of Jerusalem. It was for her to justify the annexation of East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the city occupied by Israel since 1967.
She sparked another controversy this week after posting a video of her among supporters of the Beitar Jerusalem football team in a match against the Israeli Arab club Sakhnin, named after a northern village. . During the meeting in Jerusalem, Beitar supporters allegedly sang “we are going to burn their village” to the address of the opposing team.
Ms. Regev assured that from where she was placed during the game on Monday, she had “not heard what was sung”. “There were thousands of people. I only heard those who were beside me who did nothing (of evil).
