'The Bibi Files' exposing Netanyahu scandals creates a stir in Israel

Israelis are finding alternative ways to watch The Bibi Files, a powerful documentary exposing the corruption cases of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barred from legal release in Israel, the documentary uses leaked footage from police interviews with witnesses.

Many have managed to watch the film either by using a VPN to bypass streaming restrictions or by watching leaked versions that made their way to social media. "The film is being pirated like wildfire in Israel," says Alexis Bloom, the director.

Veteran documentarian Alex Gibney, who in a decades-long career has tackled many a thorny issue, wasn't planning a film about Israel — until one day last year, when a stunning leak fell into his hands.

The leak turned out to be more like a deluge.

Suddenly, Gibney, through a source who contacted him on the Signal messaging app, was being offered access to copious video recordings of police interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife Sara, his son Yair, and a host of associates and benefactors, all conducted as part of the sprawling corruption case against Netanyahu.

It amounted to an astonishing 1,000-plus hours of tapes.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker turned to longtime Israeli investigative reporter Raviv Drucker, who did a deep dive into the material, Gibney says, and showed him that "we had something that was very explosive." Then Gibney enlisted colleague Alexis Bloom, who had worked in Israel, to direct.

The result: “The Bibi Files,” a hard-hitting documentary that certainly has timing on its side — this week, as it was released on streaming, Netanyahu took the stand in the long-running case.

If the timing is fortuitous, the film faced other obstacles. For one thing, Gibney and Bloom had to raise funds without disclosing to potential backers what they had, given the secrecy involved. Many potential backers and distributors were also nervous about getting involved, especially after Israel's war on Gaza.

And it has made a predictable splash, just as Netanyahu becomes the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant.

The longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history is charged with fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in separate cases. He is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigars and champagne in exchange for assistance with personal and business interests, and of promoting advantageous regulations for media moguls in exchange for favourable coverage.

In the leaked police videos, the 75-year-old leader sits at his desk in a surprisingly cramped office, a map of the region behind him. He expresses outrage at the proceedings, calls witnesses liars, and notes he has much weightier matters to attend to.

At one point, asked about numbers of champagne bottles, he says he spends his time counting missiles, not bottles. Frequently, his answer is he doesn't remember.

“We have a number of people on the record telling us what a great memory he has,” says Gibney. “And almost every question that could be possibly incriminating, he says ‘I can’t recall.’"

“Netanyahu’s opponents will swear by the film and will only become more convinced that he is corrupt, dizzy with power and leading us to destruction,” Nir Wolf, TV critic wrote in the Netanyahu-friendly Israel Hayom paper, wrote.

Netanyahu has also noticed the film. In September, his lawyer asked the country’s attorney general to investigate Drucker, who is a co-producer with Gibney, accusing him of trying to influence the legal proceedings.

In other footage, Arnon Milchan, the billionaire Hollywood mogul, Netanyahu friend and, more recently, prosecution witness, describes delivering fancy champagne on demand for Sara Netanyahu, sometimes toting a cooler himself, as part of an alleged gifts-for-favours scheme.

Footage also includes interviews with billionaires Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. Sheldon Adelson expresses discomfort with the friendship — “I don’t think I’ll continue the relationship with them" — and dismay over the cost of Netanyahu's preferred Cuban cigars: $1,100 for a box of 10.

The film, which began streaming Wednesday on the new service Jolt.film, draws a direct connection between Netanyahu's legal problems and the war. Through various commentators, it argues that the criminal cases led the prime minister to launch a campaign to weaken the country’s judiciary, which in turn sparked mass protests and divisions that created an image of national weakness.

Bloom says she hopes people will, having watched “The Bibi Files,” consider the idea that “term limits are a good idea." (Netanyahu has served a total of 17 years as prime minister.)

“It's OK to criticise the prime minister of Israel, and it's not anti-Semitic and it’s not anti-Israel,” the director says.