| The graves video | |
|---|---|
 The final image of the graves video, 2019 | |
| סרטון הקברים | |
| Directed by | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Based on | חלקת הל"ה – הר הרצל.jpg |
| Produced by | Likud TV |
| Starring | Avishai Ivri |
| Narrated by | Eliraz Sadeh |
Production company | Likud TV |
Release date |
|
Running time | 1:24 minutes |
| Country | Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
Likud video of graves, or "the graves video" (Hebrew:סרטון הקברים), was a short film, which wasproduced andbroadcast on February 26, 2019 by the "LikudTV"studio, submitted byEliraz Sadeh [he] on thedigital accounts of theBenjamin Netanyahu'sonline social networks.[1]
In this video, the Israeli journalistAvishai Ivri [he] describedBenny Gantz, the chairman of theBlue and White (political alliance), as theleft. At the end of the video, Ivri is seen being filmed against the background of themilitary cemetery onMount Herzl with thegraves of the killed Israeli soldiers of theConvoy of 35, claiming that "the left is dangerous".[2][3]
Ivri was a member of the Likud campaign team, and appeared on its paid broadcasts. The graves video ran less than a minute, and began with Ivri speaking with a picture in the background of the2017 Halamish stabbing attack, in which the Solomon family was murdered, and with a picture of theDolphinarium discotheque massacre during thefirst Sharon government.
Ivri continued to speak against the backdrop of pictures of Netanyahu, pictures of two other attacks that, according to Ivri, occurred due to leftist policies,[4] a picture of the Hamas government in Gaza, and pictures of Gantz with hiselectoral list. Ivri concluded his remarks by saying: "Gantz is leftist, and left is dangerous", against the backdrop of the graves.[5]
The video's use of the image of graves ofIsraeli casualties of war sparked outrage in the media.[5]
The Likud election campaign is personally managed by Netanyahu.[8] As a result, the journalistUri Misgav claimed: "Do not believe Benjamin Netanyahu's apology for the video of the graves at the military cemetery. There's no way this is an 'unfortunate editorial error'. Netanyahu appointed himself at the beginning of the election campaign as the campaign's strategic director. He is obsessive about his relationship with the media and its use, always involved down to the last detail, and no action goes without his approval. The final frame of the propaganda video is the most important frame in it".[9]
On 1 March 2019, three days after the video was posted, Avishai Ivri apologized on his Facebook page "to every bereaved family which was hurt by the video".[10][11]
The original version of the video was watched on the "Likud" website by less than 40,000 people, before it was removed. After it was shown on the news broadcasts on television channels and onnews websites, hundreds of thousands additional viewers watched the video.[12]
On 12 March 2019,Channel 13 revealed that due to the production of the video, Avishai Ivri wasfired from his position at the Likud headquarters. Avi Cohen, the advisor who was suspended with him, resigned. No proceedings were taken against those who were responsible for approving the video for broadcast, but did not watch it before it was broadcast.[11]
On 7 October 2023,Hamas and otherPalestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from theGaza Strip into theGaza Envelope of the southernIsrael, the first invasion into the Israeli territory since the1948 Arab–Israeli War. The attacks, which coincided with the Jewish religious holidaySimchat Torah, initiated the ongoingGaza war.
On 7 October 2023, Benny Gantz was not in thecoalition government of Netanyahu, but joined the government on 12 October 2023.[13][14]
The words which Ivri said in the graves video were:
All the left-wing governments in the last twenty years have taken very big bets on the security of the country. Bets which have failed. You know the procedure, they give in to international pressure, withdraw from the territories and hand them over to Arab control, which creates entire countries of terror on our doorstep and sometimes inside our home. More and more violence, more and more deaths. This is the meaning of the left-wing rule [...] First the terrible attacks and the suicide terror, then the Hamas state in Gaza and the Iranian branch in Lebanon [...] and the Israeli public has already understood what a left-wing government means, and is not willing to be a guinea pig at the cost of hundreds of deaths. So they try to hide and obscure it. But the public is not stupid.
— Avishai Ivri, The graves video
The Likud election campaign is managed personally by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a small team of advisors: presenter Eliraz Sadeh and advisors Yonatan Urich, Topaz Luke, Nadav Shtrauchler and Shiloh Adler, as well as Avishai Ivri, who serves as a field reporter for the Likud. Netanyahu does not share the campaign decisions with the Likud leadership and does not inform Likud ministers about the strategy.
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