A pro-Palestinian demonstration in London, November 11, 2023/Twitter
The Instagram account of the "Panorama" frame at the Berlin festival, which ended this week, was hacked by users who uploaded "anti-Semitic content concerning the war in the Middle East" - the organizers of the event announced.
According to the publication of Variety, the people of the festival filed an official complaint with the police.
"These statements did not come from the festival and do not represent its positions," the organizers clarified, "the Berlin festival condemns this criminal act in the strongest possible terms, deleted the posts and opened an investigation."
In the announcement, the festival also referred to the words of the award winners at the ceremony held on Saturday night, some of which included harsh criticism of Israel.
These included one winner who took to the stage dressed in a baker's cap, as well as speeches by Palestinian activist Bassel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Avraham, two of the creators of the documentary "There is no other country" which won the award for best documentary at the festival.
"There is no other country" is a Palestinian-Norwegian co-production, which deals with the struggle of Masafar Yatta communities in the West Bank against Pinoyin.
The complex relationship between the Palestinian activist Adra and the Israeli journalist Avraham is at the center of the film.
Along with them, Hamdan Belal and Rachel Shor also signed the documentary work.
The film was screened at the festival as part of the Panorama side, intended for social films, and not as part of the main competition.
Berlin Festival, 2022/Reuters, REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke
In his winning speech, Adra called for an end to sending weapons to Israel, while his colleague, Avraham, emphasized the differences in rights between the two, young men of the same age, one of them a Palestinian who lives in the southern Hebron mountain, and the other an Israeli who lives about half an hour away, and called "to stop apartheid."
In a speech that caused a stir, Avraham said, among other things: "I am Israeli, Basel 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."
The festival said that they understand the anger over statements that were perceived as one-sided "and in some cases, inappropriate", and clarified that the festival's position regarding the war is not one-sided.
"However, the festival sees itself, today as in the past, as a platform for open dialogue between countries and cultures. That is why we must also contain positions and statements that contradict ours, as long as they do not discriminate against people and groups in a racial manner or cross the boundaries of the law," they emphasized.
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.
The docu-film "No Other Land"/Bassel Adra
The Documentary Makers Forum yesterday published a letter of sharp protest against the Public Broadcasting Corporation, which presented Shal Avraham's winning speech 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.
In the item in question, Kan 11's Knesset reporter Yaara Shapira discussed the film together with film critic Ron Fogel, 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.
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The corporation determined that the Israeli winning speech in Berlin was "anti-Semitic" - the director received threats on his life
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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 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.
of the film 'There is no other country' in the documentary film award at the Berlin Film Festival and for the criticism he leveled at Israel's conduct in the war.
The report was accompanied by a caption that defined the speech as 'anti-Semitic'.
We would like to clarify that it would have been better to word the title in a different way.
However, as was emphasized in the evening news: Hamas was absent from Avraham's speech accepting the award, the October oath was absent, and the abductees were absent, something that hurt many Jewish and Israeli ears." A few hours later, the article was deleted from the corporation's social media accounts.
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