Lebanon authorities have taken steps to ban 20th Century Fox’s “The Post” due to director Steven Spielberg’s pro-Israel Stance, Fox News reports.
The recommendation from the country’s censorship leaders comes as the film is scheduled to open this week in Beirut. The ban still needs to be signed by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, but that’s just considered a formality. (RELATED: Tom Hanks Said America Will ‘Be Fine’ If Trump Wins [VIDEO])
The description of “The Post” on IMDb read, “A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country’s first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government.”
The move is a curious one, as other recent films by Spielberg — who is Jewish — have been shown in Lebanon, though his name was blacked out from movie posters advertising “The Adventures of Tin Tin.” A leaked U.S. State Department memo from 2007 showed that the director was “blacklisted” by the Arab League for supporting Israel.
The two countries are technically at war, and Lebanon at times follows the league’s blacklist.
Movie houses around the capital have taken down posters promoting the film that was set to premiere on Thursday.