The Documentary Makers Forum today (Monday) published a letter of sharp protest against the Public Broadcasting Corporation, which presented Yuval Avraham's winning speech at the Berlin Film Festival under the title "The Israeli Creator's Anti-Semitic Speech".
The forum protested the framing, accusing Kaan 11 of "wild incitement against an Israeli creator", and a "violent and irresponsible" report.
The Israeli journalist Yuval Avraham is one of the creators of the documentary film "There is no other country", a Palestinian-Norwegian co-production, which deals with the struggle of Masafar Yatta communities in the West Bank against Pinoyin.
The film signed by Avraham alongside Bassel Adra, Hamdan Belal and Rachel Shor, won the best documentary award at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival.
In his winning speech, Avraham emphasized the differences in rights between the two, young men of the same age, one of them a Palestinian who lives in the south of the Hebron mountain, and the other an Israeli who lives about half an hour away.
Among other things, Avraham said in his winning speech: "I am Israeli, Bassel is Palestinian, and we are not equal. I can move from place to place and he, like millions of other Palestinians, is locked in the occupation of the West Bank. We must call for a ceasefire and a political solution to end the occupation."
Yuval and Bassel/screenshot, Twitter
Khan 11's Knesset reporter Yara Shapira discussed the film together with film critic Ron Vogel, accusing it of being "selective" and all under the heading "The Israeli filmmaker's anti-Semitic speech".
Avraham responded to the words on his x page (formerly Twitter), saying that the corporation's framing is "madness", that only a short moment was cut from his words, and that as a result he receives threats on his life.
He emphasized that he stands behind his words.
Hagit Ben Yaakov, the chairman of the documentary forum, also expressed outrage: "I will not send you to hear Yuval Avraham's speech, which has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, but I will speak about the responsibility of public broadcasting and the media in general.
This title is nothing less than a wild incitement against an Israeli creator, whose words and position can be disagreed with but it is hard to doubt his artistic honesty.
Following the item, Yuval receives clear threats on his life, Bassel, on the other hand, also receives threats because he collaborated with an Israeli creator and their entire vision for a shared and better future is drowning again in a sea of violence and frivolity."
"On 7.10 a shocking massacre occurred here that the world must not deny To him, for the future we are all responsible together.
How sad that precisely these days, when we talk about lowering the level of violence in the public discourse, the public broadcaster chooses to behave in such a violent and irresponsible manner," she added.
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The docu-film "No Other Land"/Bassel Adra
The complex relationship between the Palestinian activist Adra and the Israeli journalist Avraham is at the center of the film.
It was screened at the festival as part of Panorama, intended for social films, and not as part of the main competition.
Israel has declared parts of the area where Masfar Yatta villagers live as a fire zone, and for decades the residents of the area have been waging a struggle against evictions, and about two years ago their petition to the High Court on the matter was rejected. At the beginning of last year, the IDF announced its intention to evict about a thousand Palestinians living in the area from their homes.
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Berlin Festival