Post of 01-12-2022
Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, the international jury at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, said at the festival that film “The Kashmir Files” was “propaganda and vulgar”.
Lapid said “It’s crazy, what’s going on here. It’s a government festival and it’s the biggest in India. It’s a film that the Indian government, even if it didn’t actually make it, at least pushed it in an unusual way. It basically justifies the Indian policy in Kashmir, and it has fascist features.”
Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon said Nadav Lapid “should be ashamed” of his criticism of the film as propaganda and vulgar. Gilon apologised to Indian hosts for the bad manners of Lapid. Ambassador Gilon said “I am happy in India and relations will continue regardless of this or another individual criticism.”
On 8 September 2022, Ambassador Naor Gilon attended the statue unveiling ceremony of Subhash Chandra Bose at India Gate war memorial, which replaces a statue of Britain’s King George V in a canopy.
Subhash Bose forged alliance with Adolf Hitler who killed and displaced millions of Jews during World War II. Bose’s courtship of fascist powers and his broadcasts from Berlin encouraging Indians to fight alongside Axis forces (Nazi forces) tarnished his image elsewhere but he is remembered in India as Netaji for his struggle for independence.
It is hypocrisy of Ambassador Gilon, son of a holocaust survivor criticising the film jury Lapid but attended the ceremony of Nazi allied India’s independence hero Netaji at India Gate.
