Latest in Israel

The Ophir Awards, Israel's top film awards, have crowned Ruthy Pribar's Asia as Best Picture, per The Jerusalem Post. The film now automatically becomes the country's entry for the 2021 International Oscar race. The year's ceremony was held via a special broadcaster of the show Culture Agent, hosted by Kobi Meidan…

On the heels of the historic deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the two Middle Eastern countries are also set to make TV history. The long-running Israeli docu-reality series Goalstar will film its upcoming season in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first Israeli television production to be shot…

UPDATED, with reaction: Cable networks turned to footage from the Oval Office on Thursday morning for a surprise announcement from Donald Trump: a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. “Just a few moments ago I hosted a very special call with two friends, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of…

Keshet, best known for turning Israeli drama Hatufim (Prisoners of War) into the long-running Showtime hit Homeland, has had to tackle the COVID-19 crisis on a number of fronts. It operates a broadcast network in Israel, runs a slew of non-scripted production companies across Europe and has a burgeoning scripted…

Jeopardy! has stirred the controversy pot by telling a contestant she gave the wrong answer on the alleged birthplace of Jesus Christ when she claimed it was in Palestine. Aljazeera reports that contestant Katie Needle chose a question on the broadcast that aired Friday in the category “Where’s That Church?” The…

Assassination drama Incitement on Sunday picked up the best picture prize at Israel’s Ophir Awards, the country's primary national film awards. The win means the film becomes Israel’s submission to this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar (renamed for 2020 from Best Foreign Language Film). Directed by Yaron…

Fresh off being barred from Israel and then turning down a humanitarian visit to the West Bank, Rep. Rashida Tlaib has now called for a boycott of HBO’s Bill Maher, who has termed her Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions efforts a “bullshit purity test.” Tlaib tweeted that she was tired of folks like Maher "discrediting…

Emmy-winning actor David Clennon said in an op-ed today that he declined an audition for a new Netflix series because he didn’t want to work with two Israeli producers previously involved in a television show that casts Palestinians in a negative light. In an op-ed for TruthOut.org, Clennon said creative executive…

Big Brother is returning in Israel following the success of a celebrity version. This marks a boon for Endemol Shine, which has faced some challenges with the twenty-year old reality format including last year’s cancellation of the show on Channel 5 in the UK. Despite this, Endemol Shine's Chief Creative Officer Peter…

You have seen the last of Marc Lamont Hill on CNN; the cable news network has fired the Temple University professor after delivering a speech at the United Nations in which he used an expression used as a dog whistle by Hamas and other anti-Israel terror groups. "Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN,"…

Just minutes after SAG-AFTRA announced today that the "content creators" at Al Jazeera English had voted overwhelmingly to join the union, the news site tweeted a link to an opinion piece it posted earlier in the day titled: "Why Israel Does Not Mind Trump’s Anti-Semitic Supporters." The op-ed, by Nora Barrows…

A Palestinian cameraman who worked on Ai Weiwei's Venice 2017 documentary Human Flow has died after being shot while covering clashes between protesters in Gaza and the Israeli military. According to local health officials, Yasser Murtaja, 30, was shot in the side of his stomach on Friday by the Israeli military while…