Why Is Netflix Tolerating Jew-Hatred?
Gidon Ben-Zvi
The Netflix logo is seen on its office in Los Angeles, California, July 16, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Lucy Nicholson.
The tremendous growth that Netflix has achieved in just over two decades has been attributed to a culture that encourages outside-the-box thinking, so as to create “empathy and understanding” through the stories the platform tells.
If so, how is it that a senior executive at the streaming service has been allowed to go on an anti-Israel and anti-Zionist tirade on social media, labeling the Jewish state as “violent, racist, colonial and apartheid,” without being held to account?
According to a report that has to date only appeared in local Israeli media, Hala Gabriel, Production Finance Executive at Netflix, has commented about the “dangers” of supporting Israel, which she says was founded “under the auspice and claim that Russians and Europeans may have had some presence in Palestine thousands of years ago.”
(Capture: Twitter)
In another post written under her Tantura Film Twitter account, Gabriel said: “‘Israel’ was founded on committing genocides and covering them up and twisting the facts. They continue the violation of Palestinian human rights in many forms until today. Amnesty defines Israel as practicing apartheid.”
Gabriel, an American of Palestinian descent who grew up in Syria and the US, is also a production supervisor and production accountant for several major studios in Los Angeles. An unfunded production of Gabriel’s was a documentary titled, “The Rabbis’ Intifada” that “follows four [Neturei Karta] rabbis across the globe to find out why they support Palestinian liberation when most other rabbis won’t.”
Neturei Karta is a fringe group, consisting of a mere 5,000 members (0.03 percent of the worldwide Jewish population), who reject the existence of the State of Israel. Neturei Karta members believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land can only be established following the arrival of the Messiah.
Despite their microscopic numbers, some of the world’s leading anti-Zionists attempt to depict Neturei Karta as maintaining views that are representative of the Jewish people as a whole. This false impression makes it easier to claim that if “even Jews are against the existence of a Jewish state, why shouldn’t I be?”
Gabriel’s social media comments call into question a crucial decision made by Netflix regarding its programming. In October of last year, Linda Sarsour tweeted about Palestinian films and documentaries arriving on Netflix. She urged her 325,000 followers to “learn about the Palestinian experience.”
Sounds innocuous enough, until one realizes that out of the 17 films and documentaries advertised by Sarsour, the vast majority featured either a plot or subtext that was nakedly hostile to the existence of Israel.
And in contrast to many of the films and television series made in Israel that have very little to do with “the conflict” or Palestinians, Netflix’s selection of Palestinian films was focused on perpetuating the victimhood narrative.
Similar to Hala Gabriel, Linda Sarsour has a history of echoing the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews believe they are a “superior” race. Sarsour has publicly declared that Israel was founded on the idea of “Jewish supremacy.”
Both seem to fit in very well at Netflix.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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