The beloved international filmmaker and artist, who spends his time between Haifa and Paris, has taken to writing op-eds in the international media, where he equates his country’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu to Machiavelli and draws parallels between Israel’s distant past with its possible undoing because of Bibi’s latest act.
“Two thousand years ago Jerusalem fell and was destroyed by the Romans, because of the intransigence and the fanaticism of the zealots, who caused the end of Hebrew sovereignty, the departure of Jews towards exile and centuries of suffering and persecution,” writes Amos Gitai, in a piece translated by Marzia Porta for La Repubblica, the leftist Italian newspaper now owned by John Elkann and the Agnelli family.
The editorial op-ed was a translation of Amos Gitai’s original piece published a few days before in Paris Match, complete with images by Israeli photojournalist Abir Sultan.
Sultan’s images offer a haunting reminder that the summer in the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and across Israel this year is a simmering, nearly explosive one. “We are living a period of rage,” so Gitai kicks off his article, “it’s a historical moment.”
In fact, Gitai points out what makes this such a momentous time in the history of Israel, the kind of fork in the proverbial road which can either lead the country to an all-important solution (for the Palestinian cause, along with the rising cost of living for everyone using the Israeli Shekel) or, more dangerously, down a precipice from which it will never recover. That’s where the history of two thousand years ago must be a lesson.
This is what the prolific filmmaker, artist, writer and much much more calls “the impressive revolt of whole sections of Israeli society, doctors and scientists, artists and soldiers, business circles, feminists and LGBTQ+, opponents of the occupation of the West Bank and defenders of human rights, which converge in a movement of hundreds of thousands of people like never before in Israel.”
So what has caused this uproar, this uncontrollable chaos which even Bibi himself can no longer control? The longest lasting leader in modern Israel’s short history — the country turns 75 this year — thrives on chaos, as Gitai points out in his article, yet this time around even he is overwhelmed by it.
The insurrection consists of Israeli citizen revolting against the newly passed governmental law which, as the BBC explains in this article, allows for “a so-called "reasonableness" bill — removing the Supreme Court's power to cancel government decisions it deems unreasonable.” In a few words, as the article goes on to explain further, “Mr Netanyahu's opponents say the reforms will severely undermine the country's democracy by weakening the judicial system, the only tool for keeping the government's use of its power in check.”
Gitai calls Netanyahu a “Machiavelli” and a “manipulator,” a leader who, until now, was able to rule with the help of the extreme right. You know, those fanatics who think Palestine should be deleted off the map and only orthodox Jews should be allowed to live in “their promised” land. Women are second class citizens and all the other goodies that typically come with the extreme right POV. With their help, Bibi has been the longest leader to remain in power.
So, who was Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli? Born in Florence, he is best known for his political text The Prince, published in 1532. This BU Today entry explains his ideology best: “Among the precepts espoused by Machiavelli: leaders should always mask their true intentions, avoid inconsistency, and frequently “act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state.” His name has become synonymous with cunning tyrants.” It’s no surprise that Bibi’s name should be associated with my fellow Florentine.
Amos Gitai in Paris, during the rehearsals of ‘House’
About this crisis, this explosion of anger and dissatisfaction among Israelis from all walks of life, Gitai feels optimistic even if detached. As he points out in the article, “I often say that I make films as a citizen, as a witness to the history of my country, a witness involved in events, like Yom Kippur (2000) or Rabin: The Last Day (2015), on the assassination of the prime minister by a far-right Jewish student in 1995.”
I personally wrote about the latter, a film which left me shattered, and interviewed Gitai in Venice for the HuffPost on that occasion. Come to think of it, I’ve written a lot about Amos Gitai’s work throughout the years, and interviewed him plenty too, and his viewpoint always teaches me something about tolerance, but also courage. His own courage to be proud but at the same time remain ambivalent about being Israeli. That’s why his idea, the genius to associate Netanyahu with Machiavelli feels so important to me — it sums up my own tentativeness when it comes to my Italian roots. I love Italy, but can we talk about its political situation without embarrassment or animosity these days? No, no we can’t.
Once again, Gitai has reinvented cinema for me, but this time not with a film — we’ll have to wait a bit for Shikun, his latest and another yet to be announced project involving a famous Venetian Jewish woman of the Renaissance. And while we hold our breath for the next city to be hosting House, his theater production which I hear is coming to London soon, Gitai’s latest work appears to be one in which he’s a spectator, a project that is lived out on the streets, and perhaps will herald a new era in Israel’s history. A new era which will also include the Palestinian state in all conversations, inshallah.
Check out Amos Gitai’s full text in French on Paris Match.