Netflix Wipes Most “Palestinian Stories,” Erases Collection in Israel

In 2021, Netflix moved to create a new movie collection for its viewers.

“Netflix will launch the Palestinian Stories collection, showcasing films from some of the Arab world’s finest filmmakers,” said an announcement of the new grouping. “[T]he collection is a tribute to the creativity and passion of the Arab film industry as Netflix continues to invest in stories from the Arab world.”

Thirty-two films were slated for inclusion, with more additions planned.

Now, however, following a purge of at least 24 films from Netflix’s library, the landing page for the collection contains just a single film for streamers in the United States: Lina Al Abed’s 2019 documentary “Ibrahim: A Fate to Define” — and that’s just if you access it from the U.S.

“This erasure of Palestinian voices by Netflix follows many ugly decades of suppression of Palestinian viewpoints.”

Accessing the page from an Israeli IP address, not only are the 24 films gone, but “Palestinian Stories” doesn’t exist at all: The URL for the landing page instead yields to 404 error page saying the site can’t be found. The Israeli page reportedly used to include 28 movies.

The disappearance of the films, whose impending absence was noted by Sunjeev Bery, came a year into Israel’s relentless assault on the Gaza Strip and escalations in the West Bank — an intensifying war against the very Palestinians whose stories Netflix sought to elevate with its collection.

“This erasure of Palestinian voices by Netflix follows many ugly decades of suppression of Palestinian viewpoints and narratives by Western news and entertainment media companies,” said a letter calling for reinstatement of the films from 30 pro-Palestinian organizations, including Freedom Forward where Bery, an Intercept contributor, is executive director.

The entertainment giant offered scant details as to why exactly two dozen Palestinian films were wiped out in a matter of weeks. In response to an inquiry from The Intercept, Netflix spokesperson Rachel Racusen said, “As part of the licensing deal for these films, the licensing period will conclude in October 2024 which is why these films will no longer be available on service.”

Racusen added, “This is standard practice in content licensing. Similar examples include Friends which is no longer available in the US or Mr. Robot which is no longer available in Arabic countries” — a statement that was echoed, but not attributed, in a Variety article on the films’ disappearance.

Global Wipeout

On their help pages, Netflix says shows and movies are removed from the platform based on licensing agreements. When a particular film’s license is expiring, Netflix says it evaluates whether the rights are still available, how popular the film is in the region in question, and the corresponding cost to renew the license.

Netflix’s initial announcement said the titles would be available for streaming globally. After the films were wiped out in the U.S., The Intercept tried to view the titles in Israel and other countries. In the sample of countries whose IP addresses were used by The Intercept to access Netflix, at least some, if not all, of the titles had been wiped across the globe.

In Korea, as in Israel, the Palestinian Stories landing page didn’t exist at all, resulting in an error message. In other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Ukraine, the page includes “Ibrahim: A Fate to Define” — the film available to U.S. viewers — as well as a second film, Ameen Nayfeh’s “200 Meters.”

The Palestinian Stories collection is no longer displayed in search results on Netflix.

After the Palestinian Stories collection first launched, Netflix was criticized by the right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirtzu. At the time Netflix responded that it “believes in artistic freedom and is continuously investing in authentic storytelling from all over the world,” leaving the films up for viewers.

In an article on the Netflix website pointing viewers to titles that will be leaving the service this month, none of the Palestinian films are mentioned.

Instead, the list highlights such titles as Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat” and “Magic Mike,” which are also slated to be removed from the platform this month.