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Netflix has denied suggestions that it deleted an entire library of Palestinian films, saying the titles are being removed because a three-year licensing period is due to expire at the end of October.
“We launched this licensed collection of films in 2021 for three years. Those licenses have now expired. As always, we continue to invest in a wide variety of quality films and TV shows to meet our members’ needs, and celebrate voices from around the world,” said the platform in response to a query by Deadline.
San Francisco-based human rights organization Freedom Forward has been circulating an open letter and petition calling on Netflix to explain why it had started posting “leaving soon” notifications on at least 19 films by or about Palestinians in recent days.
The films, which were licensed to the platform by Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment, include Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention (2002), Annemarie Jacir’s Salt of this Sea (2008) and Mai Masri’s 3000 Nights (2015), and can still be watched in the U.S. on other platforms.
The removal of films and series when the licensing period concludes is standard practice in content licensing. Friends, for example, was taken off the platform in the U.S. in early 2020, as well as in France, Australia, Belgium in July of this year, as Warner Bros. Discovery takes the rights back in-house.
Netflix is still offering a number of other current films by Palestinian creators on the service.
The Freedom Forward movement is insisting, however, that Netflix explain the reason for removing the films and reinstate the titles on its service immediately.
Its initiative comes amid growing global tensions over the year-long Israeli military action in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, triggered by the Hamas October 7 attacks on Southern Israel, which has killed close to 43,000 people, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run local health authority.
More than 1,100 people were killed in the October 7 attacks and another 253 people were abducted and taken to Gaza as hostages. More than 60 living hostages, and the bodies of about 35 others are still in the territory.
Contacted by Deadline, with Netflix’s explanation as to why the titles had been removed, Sunjeev Bery, Executive Director of Freedom Forward said the platform should still reinstate the titles.
“I suspected that licensing issues may be at play. At a time of such significant pain and suffering for Palestinians, it seems clear that Netflix should be doing everything in its power to maintain global public access to Palestinian films,” wrote Bery, who is a foreign policy analyst and human rights advocate
“It is surprising that Netflix has kept silent about the removal of these films, and that Netflix appears not to have put in the effort necessary to renew the licenses involved.”
Netflix has not responded to a question on whether it would reconsider the renewing the license for the 19 films, if the rights were available for a second term.
