India – Israel’s Ambassador to India targeted with antisemitic hate speech on Twitter

Photo: Twitter/ Naor Gilon
Photo: Twitter/ Naor Gilon

Israel’s Ambassador to India Naor Gilon on Saturday shared screenshot of anti-Semitic hate speech directed at him on Twitter. The messages used obscene language for Gilon, telling him to leave India and praising Hitler. While sharing the pic, Gilon also stated that the person behind the hate speech was a ‘PhD’ as per the Twitter user’s profile. However, Gilon did not share any details of the person, hiding his personal details.

“Just wanted to share one of a few DMs I got in this direction. According to his profile, the guy has a PhD. Even though he doesn’t deserve my protection, I decided to delete his identifying information,” Gilon wrote on Twitter while sharing the screenshot.

The case of antisemitic hate speech comes amid recent controversy involving comments from Israeli director Nadav Lapid on the Vivek Agnihotri film ‘The Kashmir Files’. Gilon had led the sharp reaction to Lapid’s comments, slamming the filmmaker for hurting India-Israel relationship. Gilon penned an open letter to Lapid and posted it on Twitter. 

“An open letter to #NadavLapid following his criticism of #KashmirFiles. It’s not in Hebrew because I wanted our Indian brothers and sisters to be able to understand. It is also relatively long so I`ll give you the bottom line first. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED,” Gilon had written.

In his long open letter, Ambassador Naor Gilon wrote: “In Indian culture they say that a guest is like God. You have abused in the worst way the Indian invitation to chair the panel of judges at @IFFIGoa as well as the trust, respect and warm hospitality they have bestowed on you.

“I’m no film expert but I do know that it’s insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and still paying a price,” Gilon had written.

Earlier, Nadav Lapid, who was the head of the jury of the 53rd International Film Festival of India, had called ‘The Kashmir Files’ film “vulgar” and “propaganda”.

“All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie ‘The Kashmir Files’. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life,” Lapid had said courting a huge controversy.

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