- Thursday, March 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The recent row over an Israeli filmmaker’s remarks on Indian film ‘The Kashmir Files’ at an international film festival in Goa in the South Asian nation has seen an ugly fallout on Saturday (3) when the ambassador of Israel to India posted a message that he had received on his Twitter account that allegedly justified Holocaust and the action of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler against the Jews.
Naor Gilon, who recently slammed his fellow countryman Nadav Lapid for his critical take on the Indian film that depicts the past plight of the Kashmiri Pandits in the northern Indian province of Kashmir, posted a screenshot of the message. He, however, did not reveal the identity of the person who sent him the allegedly hate-filled message which said “Hitler was a great person”.
Just wanted to share one of a few DMs I got in this direction.
According to his profile, the guy has a PhD?.
Even though he doesn’t deserve my protection, I decided to delete his identifying information. pic.twitter.com/cshJvnvVOF— Naor Gilon (@NaorGilon) December 3, 2022
I’m touched by your support. The mentioned DM is in no way reflective of the friendship we enjoy in ??, including on social media. Just wanted this to be a reminder that anti-Semitism sentiments exist, we need to oppose it jointly and maintain a civilized level of discussion?. https://t.co/y06JJNbKDN
— Naor Gilon (@NaorGilon) December 3, 2022
In another follow-up tweet, Gilon, who has been serving in India since 2021, said he was “touched” by the support he received after posting the message.
The incident happened days after the Israeli diplomat publicly denounced Lapid who called ‘The Kashmir Files’ a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie” at the International Film Festival of India held recently in Goa.
Gilon also apologized to India in an “open letter” on Twitter on Tuesday (29), a day after filmmaker Lapid, who headed the festival jury, slammed the film directed by Indian filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri at the festival’s closing ceremony.
Gilon said Lapid abused the Indian invitation to the judges’ panel in the “worst way”.
Lapid later offered a “total apology” saying his aim was not to insult the Kashmiri Pandit community or those who had been affected.
“But at the same time, whatever I said, and I said clearly that for me and my fellow jury members, it was, and it is a vulgar propaganda movie that didn’t have a place and was inappropriate for such a prestigious competitive section. I can repeat it again and again,” he told news channel CNN-News18.
