Rudy Rochman and two other Israelis were in separatist Biafran region shooting documentary about Igbo Jews.


Zionist activist Rudy Rochman pitches his project, "We Were Never Lost" (screenshot)

Three Israelis shooting a documentary in a separatist region in southeast Nigeria were arrested last week, the Foreign Ministry has confirmed.

According to media reports, Nigerian authorities arrested and interrogated the trio on suspicion that they had come into contact with Biafran separatists.

The Israeli Embassy in Abuja is following the case closely and is in contact with Nigerian authorities, according to the Foreign Ministry.

One of the Israelis arrested is Rudy Rochman, a Zionist activist with almost 95,000 followers on Instagram. Making the flight with him were filmmaker Noam Leibman and French-Israeli journalist E. David Benaym.

The Israelis were in Nigeria to film “We Were Never Lost,” a documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and Nigeria.

They took off from Ben Gurion Airport on July 5 and landed in Nigeria the next day.

According to locals, the crew was detained at a synagogue during Friday night services in the Igbo village of Ogidi by Nigeria’s secret police and taken to Abuja.

The filmmakers were aware of the political sensitivity surrounding the filming of the Igbo community. Last Thursday, the We Were Never Lost Facebook page stressed: “We do not take any position on political movements as we are not here as politicians nor as a part of any governmental delegations.”

The group met last week with Igbo leader Eze Chukwuemeka Eri and presented him with a framed Shiviti made in Jerusalem.

Rochman also presented another Igbo community with a Torah scroll whose cover was designed by British-Israeli street artist Solomon Souza.

The Igbo consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel.

In January, a conflict broke out in southeastern Nigeria between Nigerian forces and the military wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement. The fight is ongoing.

A previous unilateral declaration of independence by the Igbo people in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war that left more than a million dead.


Igbo traditional wedding at Nnewi. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 2018, fugitive pro-Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu gave a radio broadcast saying he was in Israel and indicating he owed his survival to the Jewish state.

Kanu, a former London estate agent, heads IPOB and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra.

He maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead them to the promised land of Biafra.

Kanu is facing treason charges in his homeland. He was arrested by Interpol in the Czech Republic in June 2021.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-filmmakers-arrested-in-nigeria-over-alleged-contact-with-separatists/

JohnBullMySon:
So what does it have to do with Biafra OP?

IhateYouMan:


Are you DUMB.

"The Israeli Embassy in Abuja is following the case closely and is in contact with Nigerian authorities"

JohnBullMySon:
My question is simple man, I read through it and I'm still wondering what it's got to do with Biafra.

Some Isreali filmmakers are doing a documentary on African tribes who claim Jewish ancestry including "Igbo Jews". They were then arrested in Nigeria.

So what has it got to do with Biafra?

JohnBullMySon:
My question is simple man, I read through it and I'm still wondering what it's got to do with Biafra.

Some Isreali filmmakers are doing a documentary on African tribes who claim Jewish ancestry including "Igbo Jews". They were then arrested in Nigeria.

So what has the Isreali embassy contact got to do with Biafra?

Okolo625:
Abeg make Isreal no were they go face their missiles fa,
On behalf of middle belts region ad south' south, we wish to let Isreal know we have no hands in the arrest,, abeg Na those people arrest them

thebosstrevor1:
They came to do documentary on their slaves who converted mainwhile in isreal The former prime minister of isreal called Africans invaders and lot of degrading names.

Spies have always come in different forms e.g journalists, bankers, film makers, tourists, businessmen, immigrant.

Tantumego:
I'm trying to believe these things happening is all coincidental but then I remember the great MNK once said when the Torah lands in biafran land then the biafran struggle is 90% close to completion..

IhateYouMan:


Did I just say are you DUMB ? What the fvck is wrong with me ?? Apologies bro. You are right - I ammended the headline.

Thank You.