Israel

Israel 🇮🇱 is a Middle Eastern country that practices Judaism. It is the only sovereign nation in the world with a Jewish majority. It also contains a significant minority of Arab citizens in the country. Politically, its sovereignty is disputed by predominantly Arab and Muslim nations. In 1980 Egypt became the first Arab nation to formally recognise the State of Israel.

Although considered to be unusually free by the region's standards, censorship is not uncommon. The Israeli government has been ramping up censorship since Palestinian armed groups such as Hamas launched an attack into Israel on October 7, 2023.

General censorship

Following the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis Israel took steps to ban Qatar-based Al Jazeera by closing its Jerusalem office, revoking press cards, and asking cable and satellite broadcasters not to broadcast Al Jazeera.

In April 2024 the Knesset voted to ban all reporting by Al Jazeera from Israel as it was a "foreign broadcast network deemed a national security risk". All of Al Jazeera's operations within Israel have ceased. The website is no longer accessible from Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces censored over six hundred articles in 2023, which shows that the Israel state ramped up censorship following the October 7 attacks.

Book censorship

• Stalag fiction, which was a genre Nazi exploitation of Holocaust pornography about female German Nazi officers sexually abusing their male camp prisoners (although not featuring any Jewish name to avoid taboos), was banned in Israel in 1960 after the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, after said books being popular in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s.

Internet censorship

The Al Jazeera websites are blocked in Israel. See the section above.

Movie censorship

Any movie from Malaysia or Malay-language movie is not allowed to be shown in Israeli cinemas as Israel is not recognized by the Malaysian government, favoring instead for Palestine's legal recognition, due to the Gaza Strip Crisis.

• Oliver Twist (1948) - this film was banned in the country as it was felt that Fagin (portrayed by the late Alec Guinness) was an anti-Semitic stereotype
• The Girl in the Kremlin - this film was banned because it may have harmed Israel's diplomatic relations with Moscow.
• China Gate - this film was banned for indulging in excessive cruelty. The Israeli film censorship board indicated that the film depicted Chinese and Russian soldiers as "monsters".
• Goldfinger was banned for a while because Gert Frobe, the actor who played the eponymous character, had been a member of the Nazi party from 1927 to 1937. However, the ban was lifted after it turned out that he used his position to help two Jews hide from the Gestapo during the war (a man went to the Israeli Embassy in Vienna, telling to the staff that Frobe hid him and his mother from the Nazis).
• Hitler: The Last Ten Days - this film was banned due to the censorship board unanimously felt that the portrayal of Hitler was too human.
• In the Realm of the Senses - this Japanese film about Sada Abe, a prostitute who murdered her lover after cutting off his genitals, was banned in 1987 due to its pornographic content.
• The Last Temptation of Christ - this film was banned on the grounds that it could offend Christians.
• Jenin, Jenin - banned by the Israeli Film Ratings Board on the premise that it was libelous and might offend the public; the Supreme Court of Israel later overturned the decision. In 2021, the film was banned yet again after a lower court ruled in favor of a plaintiff who had appeared in the film.
• Shrek 2 - this film was briefly banned in 2004 due to a joke in the Hebrew dub about David D'Or (an Israeli singer known for his high-pitched singing voice) being added, in which one character threatened to emasculate another by saying "Let's give him a David D'Or treatment". This remark prompted the singer to take legal action.

Television censorship

• Chorlton and the Wheelies - This series was banned because of Claptrap Von Spilldebeans, the talking spellbook of Fenella the Kettle Witch. He should have been drawn with a five-pointed Pentagram on his cover, but instead he was given the six-pointed Star of David. This wouldn't be much of a problem, but the spellbook also happened to speak with a German accent. The studio was accused of anti-Semitism from the Israeli Embassy in London, who stopped the series being sold to Israel.
• The Flight of Dragons - while it used to be broadcasted every summer on the Educational Channel, one lady called to complain that one character, the wizard Carolianos, was an anti-Semitic stereotype (because of the large nose and the six-pointed stars on his robe). The broadcast was cut short and the film was never shown again on Israeli television.
• Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn - in this anime movie, The Dictator was removed from the Hebrew dub due to the villains having Nazi references and to avoid insulting Israelis and Holocaust survivors after World War II. The swastikas are also replaced with red crosses and any "Third Reich" reference was removed.
• Sesame Street (Mecha Builders) - In this Hebrew dub, Zvika Fohrman was returned as a voice actor of Elmo but with a Mecha robot and the localization logo’s name was Hahabubot due to the Israeli-Hamas War all over Hop’s airings.

References

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