"Don't call me a right-wing journalist. I speak facts"
In the midst of the military tensions, Zvi Yehezkali launches "Shtula" on Channel 13 - a series that reveals the behind-the-scenes of the human rights organizations operating in the West Bank.
In a conversation on the podcast of the Israel Press Institute, he explains the flourishing of the Ben Gabir phenomenon and why we will never reach a solution with Islam
David Wertheim
10/23/2022
Sunday, October 23, 2022, 08:05 Updated: 08:15
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share by email
Share in general
Comments
Comments
In the midst of a tense period in the territories and with a naval agreement with Lebanon in the background, the head of the Arab affairs desk at Channel 13 Zvi Yehezkali launches "Shtula" - a five-episode docu-espionage series that reveals for the first time authentic documentation of what goes on behind the scenes of the human rights organizations operating in the West Bank and shows how it is conducted Their mental war against Israel.
In a conversation on the podcast of the Israel Press Institute, he explains Ben Gabir's rise in politics, why there will never be a solution to Islam, and how it is that he does not even have an iota of nostalgia for the days when he was a sex symbol.
A small part of the conversation is presented here in the article.
Listen or watch the full conversation.
Let's start from the end: let's talk about the new series you created "Shatula".
"'Shtula' is a pro-Palestinian Swedish girl who came to Israel as a tourist to study architecture, who meets someone from the Ali settlement who explains to her that there is another side to the story. Little by little, she works her way up within the organizations and actually becomes an intelligence agent. After a year, she reaches the real leadership - the people of Hamas. The senior members of the organization They reveal to her the mechanism for raising the money, and the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Hamas headquarters in Europe and human rights organizations. This means that human rights organizations like BDS are operated by Hamas members.
"It becomes an intelligence treasure, including secrets that Hamas members told her, paperwork and documentation.
And then we start building a series out of it.
It's very complicated because there's a lot of use of hidden cameras, and you also have to protect her life."
You've had the materials for 3 years. Why did it actually take so long to get them on air?
"That's true. The reason for this is that we have 3,000 hours of footage in which there are a lot of characters and people filmed - and all of them needed legal backing. And in general, this thing is explosive in the face of the possibility of international lawsuits, and this process is crazy. In general, this is the longest series I've ever done." .
By the way, did you pay her?
"In a cup of coffee".
Talk Talk Case Zvi Yehezkali (Walla system, edited by Jordana Aboudi Fox)
Head in Singapore, feet in Gaza
"In the Middle East, it's not the 'what', it's the 'how'. And no matter how you spin it, Israel's how was recalcitrant, cowardly and undeterred. The agreement entered the last line because Nasrallah knows that we, just like him, do not want war"
Let's talk a little about our nice neighborhood.
How do you estimate the wave of protests in Iran will end?
"Look, if you now sit with the Iranian people, with simple guys, it's completely different from what you know from the Middle East. They want us and admire us. They are not interested in all the affairs of Khamenei and the like. This is a generation that grew up after the revolution and they want freedom. They want money. This wave of riots showed how much pressure they are under and how much it can explode."
This is interesting, because most interpretations actually hold that despite the determination and courage of the demonstrators, this wave will not lead to the fall of the regime.
"I don't know if it will happen, but there have been many waves of violence, whether during the Ahmadinejad era or in recent years. The West always threw them away and the US didn't pick it up and they were massacred.
Their tongues were cut.
Just like that.
I saw pictures of mass graves there.
Only if it trickles down to the bureaucracy, to the army, maybe something will change.
As I know this government is so cruel and so ready for this possibility, that it is really doubtful if it will happen.
The only way this can happen is if there is a desertion from the Revolutionary Guards, and that is not happening yet."
And here in the West Bank, security reporters report that there has actually been a lull in recent days.
"The whole question in the news is how you look. Do you see this white old man? I have been reporting on the Palestinians for 25 years. I was there when Arafat entered the territories. I gave it a chance. I also sat with Abu Mazen in his office, in the place where the Shin Bet headquarters used to be On the beach, who told me 'just go out, Singapore will be here'.
After two years, when his men had already been hanged, I asked him - when is Singapore?
He told me that it was their failure and ours."
So I guess you also think that the agreement with Lebanon was a mistake.
"In the Middle East it's not the 'what', it's the 'how'.
And no matter how you spin it, Israel's way was recalcitrant, cowardly and undeterred.
The agreement entered the last row because Nasrallah knows that we, just like him, do not want war."
"Explosives facing international lawsuits." "Shatula" (photo: screenshot, screenshot)
"We will not be blondes"
"Don't put me in this category of a right-wing journalist. It's like you go to the doctor, and you say tell me Zvi, what's the situation. And I give you a diagnosis. Are you comfortable? Fine. I've had reports that they're ultra-left, and I've had reports that they're completely right-wing. I am not telling about the Palestinians what I think about them"
Let's call the child by his name.
You are a right-wing journalist.
Would you define yourself as part of the journalists who support Netanyahu?
"Don't put me in this category of a right-wing journalist. It's like you go to the doctor, and you say tell me Zvi, what's the situation. And I give you a diagnosis. Are you comfortable? Fine. I've had reports that they're ultra-left, and I've had reports that they're completely right-wing. I tell the Palestinians not what I think of them, but what they tell themselves. The Middle East tells itself, and that's what I bring. It doesn't always sit well in the ear or is easy to hear, but it's the truth. In my opinion, by the way, right and left is a division All of it is built entirely from a lack of understanding of the Arab space. One says - let them, let them leave us here to drink coffee in Tel Aviv. The other says - don't let them. Both of them don't understand. I live in this space. Until we understand the Arabs, we can't consolidate left and right here ".
So how do we understand them?
"Learn Arabic, hang out with Arabs, read textbooks, go to mosques, read poems, be aware of the journalistic discourse. I speak Arabic with my children. Let them know and recognize. So that they will not be afraid to see Al Jazeera on the screen. In my opinion, every Israeli citizen should watch In this channel to understand.
"My dear, open the prism.
For 150 years we have suffered terrorism here.
There will always be terrorism.
Terrorism is the result of persuasion.
The very fact that you are a democratic country and behaves the way it does, it allows terrorism."
So what is the solution?
"There is no solution.
No conflict will be resolved in Islam."
Hudna?
"Oh, you started talking. Nice. If you say let's make long-term interim agreements like two tribes, that's something else. The Middle East is fundamentally tribal. It's not countries. It's tribe and religion, and religion appeared long after. When a tribe does hodna, it comes Only if you are strong. If you come to them and say: Are you thirsty for water? We are ready to give you water, but understand who is the owner of the house here. Even if you close Hodna, always be alert because there is a lot of creative space here for violation."
"Since 2005, close to ten thousand Palestinians have been killed. If you had enforced the first violation after disengagement, it would have been different. Again, I'm talking about the how, not the what. If you had invested serious firepower after the first missile, you would have spared them, and also thousands of Israelis who died Since then. You live in Europe, they live in the Middle East."
So what do the Prime Ministers and security forces for generations not understand in their attempts to pursue agreements, even if they involve withdrawals?
"We are Western people. Our lives are comfortable. When I was born in the 1970s, my parents told me that we might not go to the army. We would be blondes. Arafat told me - 'We will not be blondes.' So that you won't be'. Do you understand this sentence? All the names you mentioned are politicians, and I understand that they are trying to find solutions. I'm talking about the essence."
"Barghouti was my friend, so I'm a leftist?".
Arafat and Barghouti (Photo: AP, Mohammed Rawas)
"I'm not a priest"
"Behind all the smiles there is a Jew here. Face it, Abu Mazen also wants Ramat Aviv and Safed. And by the way, why not return the land of Ramat Hasharon? There are those who want it. So maybe you too, Kahnist? I feel like I have more hours with Arabs than this friend of yours"
You isolate yourself twice a day, dip in a spring every day, you have seven children, you live in the heart of the Bat Ein settlement - a religious settlement where neither German goods nor Arabs enter.
Oh, and you don't have a TV at home.
A friend who spoke to me before the interview told me: "Yehzekali is actually a priest in disguise."
What do you think about the Ben Gvir phenomenon?
"I don't know Ben Gvir. But I know that if he goes up, it's a reaction to the things that are happening. Guarding walls, insecurity in the streets, so they found Ben Gvir. If there was someone else, they would choose him."
There were 12 years of right-wing here, so why a reaction?
"I don't care about left and right. There is a lack of security in our society. Even when a Bedouin steals a car in flames, or breaks into a house and rapes an Israeli girl, or is sexually harassed on the street in Be'er Sheva, it has one name - Jihad. As long as you don't recognize it or call it that And calling it a criminal or romantic background, you will know that it has a price at the ballot box. You can't go in Lod and Ramla, Beer Sheva and Jerusalem, what did you think - that they wouldn't come with a bill at the ballot box?
"So to your friend who said that, I would suggest telling him that behind all the smiles There is a Jew here.
Take care, Abu Mazen also wants Ramat Aviv and Safed.
And by the way, why not return the land of Ramat Hasharon?
There are those who want her.
So maybe you are also a kahnist?
I feel like I have more hours with Arabs than this friend of yours."
You are seen today, also visually, as an outsider in the traditional media.
You don't even have a TV at home.
But it didn't last forever.
You were for years in the mainstream GLA stronghold as a field reporter. In 2007, you were even suspended from Channel 10 after applying to replace Gadi Soknik, then presenting the main edition on the competing Channel 2. It's interesting because it's an opposite and different position, and the feeling is that you had these opinions in the closet.
"I am from 1998 in the media.
And as I said before, I have no opinions.
I give you a diagnosis.
If you take my 27 years of coverage then say what you want about me.
Uri Dan, Sharon's advisor, said that Zvi Yehezkali planted the flag of a wizard in Israel, because Barghouti was a friend of mine.
And I knew Bargothi well and I visited him in prison.
So what do you say?
I bring what they said."
"This is not a journalistic achievement for me."
Gil Tamri's Mecca incident (photo: screenshot, documentation on social networks according to Article 27 A of the Copyright Law)
"I received offers from other channels"
"I'm Doss. And all this glamor is foreign to my world, but it's my mission. So I do it but less in the stars, I don't shake hands, I don't have barbecues and I don't go places. I also don't have a TV at home."
Your friend to the editor, head of the foreign affairs desk Gil Tamri, visited Mecca in what ended in a diplomatic fiasco and not a little criticism.
Do you think it was worth it?
Where did he go wrong?
"Gil went to Saudi Arabia with his American passport to travel around. While traveling in a taxi, the driver told him, "Come on, let's enter Mecca," and led him to it while plagiarizing.
Gil went along with it because he thought it was cool, but it wasn't something premeditated.
There was no purpose for Gil to travel to Mecca.
It's a disgrace for the driver and he's in jail."
Would you also stream?
"It's not a journalistic achievement for me.
If I was in Saudi Arabia I would do other things.
But do you know what age is?
If you ask me, I would go to mosques and schools and hear what is really being said about us.
I would trace the roots of al-Qaeda where Bin Laden studied, I would talk to Shiites. " Did
you get offers from Channel 14?
"No, but when Channel 20 came on I had a talk show called Masa Lily.
When you came in here you enthusiastically said that you were surprised that in the heart of Tel Aviv people asked you for a selfie.
And maybe underneath all that asceticism, you still miss your heyday as a sex symbol?
"I moved from the Shin Bet to the IDF, which is to get out of the shadow world straight into the spotlight. I wanted to be in the front. If I didn't need to receive love from the outside, I wouldn't have gone on television. But something else happened here. I repented. I am a Doss. And all This glamor is foreign to my world, but this is my mission. So I do it but less in the stars, I don't shake hands, I don't have barbecues and I don't go to places. I also don't have a TV at home. I think that the love I have for me in public is because I do my truth".
Barangay
Tick tock
Tags
Zvi Yehezkali
News 13
Tamri's age
Channel 14 - Channel 20
Itamar Ben Gabir