Amos Gitai and IBA continue their war - Haaretz

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Thu., August 30, 2007 Elul 16, 5767

Israel Time: 11:25 (EST+7)

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Amos Gitai and IBA continue their war

By Asaf Carmel

The battle between director Amos Gitai and the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) refuses to die down. Gitai sent a letter yesterday to IBA deputy chair Dorit Inbar demanding a discussion of the IBA's decision to withhold funding from Gitai's latest film, "Disengagement."

In addition, the director demands that Inbar apologize for statements she made that question his and his films' "Israeliness."

Gitai's attorney, Eti Livni, cosigned the letter. "My client looks with gravity upon your remarks," Livni wrote to Inbar. "From the lofty height of your public role, you chose to slander one who is innocent of any crime and a leading figure in Israeli film. My client is considering a libel suit to compensate for damages caused to him in Israel and abroad."

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Last Thursday, the IBA plenum's Television Committee rejected a proposal from the IBA's director general, Mordechai Sklar, to invest in Gitai's latest film and to use the opportunity to purchase nine of his previous films for broadcast.

This transaction would have cost at least $200,000.

According to Gitai, he and the producers of "Disengagement," United King Films, borrowed this sum from the bank based on Sklar's promise that the IBA would participate in the film's funding.

Inbar led the Television Committee's opposition to the deal, arguing that the deal was neither cost effective nor did it meet the authority's accepted criteria. Inbar maintained that the IBA's funding of films created by a director who has lived outside of Israel for many years was inappropriate.

Other committee members added that Gitai's films are politically controversial because of their leftist bent. Meanwhile, it has become clear that IBA Chairman Moshe Gavish actually supports the deal.

According to attorney Livni, the Television Committee decided to forgo doing business with Gitai because of unacceptable political considerations.

"Statements by other speakers at the meeting and statements that you made to the media speak loud and clear, among all the quoted excuses," the attorney wrote to Inbar. "It appears that justifications for rejection were unfounded and based on mistaken information or information that was not examined, to say the least... It is superfluous to note that all of Gitai's films were filmed and edited in Israel. Its [the film's] shameful rejection by the public channel represents a mark of disgrace for the decision-making body of the IBA."

Inbar said yesterday she has not yet received the letter.

Television Committee chair Ya'akov Shaham said, "The committee made a decision, and there is no reason to change it. The subject will not be raised for discussion again."

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