Shlomi Eldar

Shlomi Eldar
Born	(1957-02-11) 11 February 1957 (age 67) Herzliya
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Children	5
Awards	Sokolov Award
Career
Station	News 13
Country	Israel

Shlomi Eldar (born February 11, 1957 ) (Hebrew: שלומי אלדר), is an Israeli television journalist and film maker. He is a correspondent at Israeli Channel 13 news. He served as a reporter and editor for Channel 1 between 1990 and 2003 and a reporter for News 10 on Gaza Strip affairs from 2003 to November 2012.^[1]

Biography

Eldar began his career as a radio broadcaster on "Reshet Gimel." In

In 1999, Eldar covered the earthquake in Izmit. Eldar sat for over three days watching the Home Front Command attempting to find survivors and broadcast live the rescue of Israeli 9-year-old Shiran Franco.  This broadcast became one of the most well-known broadcasts in Israel's history.^[5][6]

In 2003, Eldar moved to the newly founded Channel 10. In his first days in the channel, he was sent to Iraq after the end of the Iraq War and the subsequent capture of Saddam Hussein to film his first documentary, "Passing by Baghdad".  In the film, Eldar found the house of his parents before their Aliyah to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.^[7]

In 2004, Eldar survived a kidnapping attempt by Hamas.^[8]

In 2005, Yedioth Books published his book "Eyeless in Gaza". The book is his journalistic and personal journey, spanning two decades in the Gaza Strip, between intifadas, the peace process, the collapse of

During his time as a reporter in Gaza, Eldar faced hosilities with the IDF, and criticized the army's actions in the Palestinian territories, among other things, when he reported on the demolition of houses in Operation Rainbow, Eldar attempted to prove that an IDF shell caused the death of seven members of the Raliya family on the Gaza coast.^[10]

In December 2008 Eldar entered the Gaza strip through a ship sailing from Cyprus, despite the ban on Israelis to enter the Gaza strip after the withdrawal. Upon his reentry to Israel, he was detained for questioning and released with a warning. In later interviews, Eldar claimed that Prime Minister

In 2009, during the Gaza War, Eldar sat on a panel when he received a call from his friend, Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish after Israeli shells fell on Dr Abuelaish's family home in Gaza, killing three of his young daughters and their cousin. Eldar picked up the call and put him on speaker for viewers to hear Dr. Abuelaish's cries.^[13] This widely circulated video has been cited as a major reason for a ceasefire and end to the war.^[14]

In 2012, Eldar released his book, Getting to Know Hamas, in which he revealed the channel of communication between Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, through the mediation of a foreign diplomat and Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin. The book won the Yitzhak Sade Award for military literature.^[15][16]

In 2012, Eldar announced his resignation from Channel 10.^[17]

In 2013, Eldar relocated to the United States, and served as researcher for Wilson Center^[18] and a lecturer at New York University and the University of Maryland.^[19]

In 2015, Eldar participated in the Israeli reality TV show MasterChef VIP.^[20]

In 2022, Eldar returned to Israel.^[21]

In 2023, after the outbreak of

In 2010, Eldar released "Precious Life" a documentary describing the struggle of an Israeli paediatrician and a Palestinian mother as they try to get treatment for her baby who suffers from an incurable genetic disease, as the 2008-2009 war was waging. The film won a commendation at the Jerusalem Film Festival and was screened later that year at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the Leipzig Film Festival. In September 2010, the film won the Ophir Award for the best documentary film and was short listed for the Oscars.^[24] American columnist Tom Friedman wrote an op-ed praising the film.^[25] HBO acquired the rights to screen Precious Life.^[26]

Foreign Land

In 2017, Eldar's documentary Foreign Land won the Best Documentary Film award at the Haifa Film Festival. In 2018, the film won the Ophir Award for best documentary. In his acceptance speech, Eldar stated: "I started shooting Foreign Land six years ago, a long time in terms of a film, a chapter in the life of a country. Six years ago, no one thought of going up to courts with a D-9, artists were not persecuted and threatened, bereaved parents were not reprimanded, the Arabs were not "heading to the polling stations in droves" (in reference to a campaign speech by Netanyahu prior to the 2015 election), annexation was a perverted idea of a fringe extreme right, desecularization of Israel was not a word in our lexicon, and there was no nation state law that legally defined Arabs, Druze and Circassians minorities as second-class citizens."^[27] The film was purchased for broadcast by Kan 11, the Israeli Public Broadcasting network, and provoked the protest of Culture Minister Miri Regev, who argued there was no place to broadcast a film criticizing Israel on a public television channel.^[28]

Riding With a Spy

In 2021, Eldar released the film Riding with a spy. The film was shot during a coast-to-coast trip in the United States with Anat Kamm, who was convicted of aggravated espionage after leaking secret documents to Haaretz journalist Uri Blau, and included a meeting between Kamm and Pentagon Paper whistleblower Daniel Ellseberg. The film was accepted into the official competition of the Dokaviv Festival and was nominated for the Ophir Award for 2021.^[29] Following the public response the film evoked, Kamm received a job offer from Haaretz and was appointed editor of the newspaper's opinion section.

Awards and honours

In 2007, he won the Sokolov prize for his coverage of Gaza.^[30]

In 2014, he won the Yitshak Sadeh military literature prize for his book "Getting to Know Hamas".

Eldar's films have been nominated three times for an Ophir award, and won twice for best documentary.

References