The UK Israel Business (North East) (UKIB) April meeting took place at the First Direct Arena, where Matt Frei, Europe Editor and Presenter at Channel 4, was in conversation with Edward Ziff.
Fresh off a BAFTA nomination for his coverage in Israel, Matt Frei, Channel 4’s German born Editor and Presenter, recounted his own history with the country to a packed audience: “I lived in Israel for a year and
I’ve been back a lot. I really like it and I’m heartbroken by what’s been going on.”
Matt’s career has taken him around the world, with one or two high profile interviewees, especially while being the stations Washington D.C. correspondent: “Obama was super impressive because he’s slick and cool, but you know he’s going to give you five minutes of his time and then it’s over. Clinton was more engaging. He has this habit – which got him into some trouble – he’s very physical. He’s squeezing you and literally moving closer and closer. He’s very tall and charismatic, and super clever. If you ask him about stuff he doesn’t want you to ask about becomes an absolute monster. George W. Bush was
the most engaging, I interviewed him in the White House. He was in his final year in office, and he was so toxic by that stage that no one wanted to be anywhere near him.
“The interview itself was weird. It was 15 minutes long and they’re quite precise. There was a guy with big cards counting down time, and we got to 4 minutes past how long it should have been and they were signalling me to stop. We finished the interview and I assumed we would all be thrown out. I asked to take photos and Bush replied: ‘Sure, I got all the time in the world.’ He ended up in the Oval Office and we were shooting the breeze.
I asked him about all kinds of things. He was very widely read.”
The conversation then turned to Matt’s time covering the war in Israel: “Arriving in Jerusalem on 8th October was very eerie. Everything had shut down, and there were still sirens all the time. It felt completely empty and fearful. The hotels were packed because October is the main tourist season and within four days they had emptied. We ended up in the King David Hotel and the presidential suite was the room next to mine. I was out on the balcony doing stretches one morning – I was in my boxer shorts – and I heard a rustling coming from the between me and the next room. I thought it was strange because the room should have been empty, so I thought I should have a look. I peered over and there was our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak!. But it’s a serious warzone, and we’ve seen some harrowing scenes, finding a resolution to it all is very difficult with the various stakeholders in the region. Hopefully things can calm down quickly.”
“Arriving in Jerusalem on 8th October was very eerie. Everything had shut down, and there were still sirens all the time.“
Matt then took some questions from the floor, one of which was: “Is anyone in control of what’s going on in Israel?” “The Israeli’s are very much in control of what’s going on,” Matt answered. “Totally. It’s a democracy, right? So there are a lot of people who really dislike Bibi Netanyahu. Families who have loved ones taken hostage are really upset with him. The economy is now coming back again, but it collapsed for a period. They had more reservists sign up than they needed. On the Palestinian side it’s much more fragmented. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority which is in charge was very little in evidence in terms of what they were doing with their own population.”
In answering this question Matt was keen to highlight the terrible toll the war is exacting: “We were heading back from filming in a village where the Palestinians had been told to clear out within 24 hours. It’s all about getting footholds in the settlements. We came across a little demonstration, kids throwing rocks, but the soldiers were quite far away. There was one guy who was left behind, who had learning difficulties. There’s CCTV footage of him lobbing a stone underarm, and the soldier gets down on his knees, puts a bullet in his neck, and kills him.”
For more information about UKIB, email jane.clynes@ukisraelbusiness.co.uk
