New Delhi: Israel's envoy to India Naor Gilon on Tuesday slammed Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid in an open letter for criticizing 'The Kashmir Files' at the International Film Festival of India saying that while he will be going back to his country thinking that he has 'made a statement', the representatives of Israel to India will stay back for damage control.
"You will go back to Israel thinking that you are bold and 'made a statement'. We, the representatives of Israel, would stay here. You should see our DM boxes following your 'bravery' and what implications it may have on the team under my responsibility," Gilon said adding that Lapid had "abused in the worst way" the Indian invitation to him to chair the panel of judges at the film.
Lapid had on Monday described 'The Kashmir Files' as "propaganda" and "vulgar" and that it was "inappropriate" to screen such a film at the film festival. "All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie 'The Kashmir Files'. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival," he said. Noting that his comments might be construed as sharp he laid a disclaimer saying, "I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life."
In his open letter to Lapid which Gilon has also posted on Twitter, he said, "As a son of a holocaust survivor, I was extremely hurt to see reactions in India to you that are doubting Schindler's List, the Holocaust and worse. I unequivocally condemn such statements. There is no justification. It does show the sensitivity of the Kashmir issue here," he said.
Laying stress on the cultural ties shared between India and Israel, Gilon said 'Indian friends' brought Fauda co-creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff to celebrate the love in India towards the Israeli series and maybe this was also one of the reasons why they invited him at the festival.
The Israeli envoy to India was not pleased with Lapid's statement to an Israeli news channed afterwards. He said, "I understand your need in retrospect to 'justify' your behaviour but I can't understand why you told (Israeli) Ynet news afterwards that the minister and I said on stage that there is similarity between our countries because 'we fight a similar enemy and reside in a bad neighbourhood'." Gilon said the connection the filmmaker makes between his criticism of The Kashmir Files and his dislike to what is happening in Israeli politics was quite evident. However the filmmaker should be at liberty to criticise what he dislikes in Israel but he should not do so in other countries. "I'm not sure that you have enough factual basis to make such comparisons," he said.
"We did speak about the similarities and closeness between our countries. The minister spoke about his visits to Israel, it being a Hi-Tech nation and the potential of combining this with the film industry. I spoke about the fact that we grew up watching Indian films," Gilon said adding that Israelis should be humble when India, with such a great film culture, is consuming Israeli content.
"I'm no film expert but I do know that it's insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and still paying a price," the envoy said alluding to Lapid's criticism of The Kashmir Files.
Commenting on the close ties between India and Israel, the envoy said the friendship between India and Israel will survive the damage Lapid inflicted. "As a human being I feel ashamed and want to apologize to our hosts for the bad manner in which we repaid them for their generosity and friendship," he said adding that he did not pen his letter in Hebrew so that Indians can understand.
Former Israeli envoy to India Daniel Carmon also slammed Lapid's remarks as "unfortunate". Camron said that his comments reflects his own and only his own views and total lack of basic sensitivity or knowledge of what he talked about. He echoed the envoy's letter saying that it "speaks for all of us and reflects our true feelings."
"As the Ambassador said-the friendship between the people & the states of India & Israel is very strong and will survive the damage the film maker has inflicted," Carmon tweeted. "He (Lapid) definitely should apologize for his revolting personal remarks on historical facts without any sensitivity, not really knowing what he was talking about.I strongly urge our many friends in India not to be drawn by one person's remarks to doubting the facts about the Holocaust," Carmon said.
'The Kashmir Files' was released in theatres on March 11 and was screened on November 22 at IFFI. The film stars Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi among others.
