An Israeli filmmaker who won one of the top prizes at the Berlin Film Festival is planning to shut down his plans after German authorities described the ceremony as “anti-Semitic”, leading to death threats and physical intimidation of his family. He said that it has been postponed. to return to Israel.
Yuval Abraham, 29, won the Berlinale’s best documentary award on Saturday for No Other Land, which depicts the eradication of the Palestinian village of Masafel Yatta in the West Bank.
Abraham’s acceptance speech, which denounced the “apartheid situation” and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, was one of several moments during the closing ceremony in which the filmmakers expressed solidarity with Palestine. The next day, this sparked an outcry in the German media, with several politicians claiming that the speech was “anti-Semitic”.
“As the son of a Holocaust survivor, standing on German soil, calling for a ceasefire, and then being labeled an anti-Semite is not only outrageous, it literally puts Jewish lives at risk.” Abraham told the Guardian.
“We don’t know what Germany is going to do to us,” he added. “If this is a way of dealing with Germany’s guilt over the Holocaust, then they are making it completely meaningless.”
Abraham said he had planned to return to Israel the day after the closing ceremony, but during a stop in Greece he changed his plans after learning that Israeli media called his speech anti-Semitic, and that some German Officials were also quoted.
In addition to receiving death threats on social media, Abraham said several people showed up at his family’s home in southern Israel and were evicted from the home out of fear for their safety.
Abraham, whose grandmother was born in a concentration camp and most of his father’s family killed in the Holocaust, said: “You can criticize our acceptance speech and say it should have mentioned the events of October 7th.” You can do that too. It’s all legitimate.” . But Germany has weaponized the term, which was created to protect Jews, to not only silence Palestinians, but also Jews and Israelis who are critical of the occupation and use the term apartheid. . This is also dangerous because it devalues the word anti-Semitism. ”
Basel Adra, Abraham’s Palestinian filmmaking partner, said at a ceremony on Saturday that he had a hard time celebrating the success of his film while the people of the Gaza Strip were being “massacred and massacred” and called out Germany for the film’s success. He called for an end to arms exports to Israel. Abraham said he was worried about Adra’s safety when she returned to her West Bank village, which is surrounded by Israeli settlements.
“Basel is under occupation and at any time the military or settlers could take revenge against Basel,” Abraham said. “He’s in far greater danger than I am.”
The backlash against the Berlinale ceremony in Germany included calls for the resignation of Culture Minister Claudia Roth, a Green Party politician who was seen on video of the ceremony applauding Abraham and Adora’s speeches.
Mr. Ross’s office sought to clarify that Mr. Ross applauded the Israelis in the incident, not the Palestinians. Statement regarding X on monday. Her applause was for Yuval Abraham, a Jewish-Israeli journalist and filmmaker who spoke out in support of a political solution and peaceful coexistence in the region. Ross’ office also said reports of death threats against Abraham were “alarming.”
Abraham said: “This divide-and-conquer strategy feels more at home with military occupation. Our film envisions a future where we can live together with equal rights, so we can come together and I’m going to stand up.”
