No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham has hit out at German politicians and the Israeli media for branding his award acceptance speech at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday as “antisemitic.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Abraham, part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary at the Berlinale for No Other Land, said he had received death threats and had to cancel his flight back to Israel.
“This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech — where I called for equality between Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid — as ‘antisemitic,’ ” Abraham said on the social media platform.
“The appalling misuse of this word by Germans, not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire that will end the killing in Gaza and allow the release of the Israeli hostages — empties the word antisemitism of meaning and thus endangers Jews all over the world,” he added.
As the Berlinale this year was overshadowed by political events, including the Israeli-Gaza conflict and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, festival organizers faced a backlash from the local media and German politicians over the awards ceremony on the weekend, where winning filmmakers made statements in support of Palestinians when accepting their trophies.
“The sometimes one-sided and activist statements made by award winners were an expression of individual personal opinions. They in no way reflect the festival’s position,” the Berlinale said in a statement.
No Other Look chronicles the Israeli government’s attempts to expel Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a rural village in the occupied West Bank. The documentary appeared in Berlin’s Panorama sidebar section, where it won the audience award for best documentary.
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