Abraham, 29, standing next to the Palestinian director participating in the Berlin Film Festival over the weekend, criticized his government's treatment of Palestinians, saying: “In two days, we will return to a land where we are not equal. … We need to call for an end to shooting.
Earlier, co-director Basil Adra said, “It is very difficult for me to celebrate when there are tens of thousands of my people slaughtered and slaughtered,” calling on Germany to stop arms exports to Israel.
In response, German politicians criticized the statements made on stage as “one-sided” and blamed the festival organizers for letting the statements go unchallenged. Berlin Mayor Kai Wagner tweeted He added that the statements were “unacceptable” and that anti-Semitism “has no place in Berlin,” adding that he expected the festival organizers to “ensure that such incidents do not happen again.” German Cultural Commissioner Claudia Roth said she was working with city officials to review the festival's handling of the incident.
The backlash has once again highlighted Germany's hard-line approach to criticism of Israel, which has been tested in the increasingly febrile atmosphere following the October 7 Hamas attack and the ensuing Israeli war. Politicians there regularly say the nation has a historical responsibility to provide its unwavering support for the Jewish state, calling it “Staatsräson” — the state’s raison d’être.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Abraham said he received death threats and hate messages in response to his speech. As he was preparing to board his home in Israel, people called him and threatened to meet him when he arrived at the airport. He has since canceled his trip, saying: “I understood that I could not return.”
Abraham and Adra's film, No Other Earth, won the Berlinale Documentary Film Prize. In the film, Abraham and Badra document life in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank while also examining the way their relationship – as an Israeli and a Palestinian of the same age – has been strained by inequality.
Abraham said that the documentary aims to spark debate and that he respects those who disagree with him. “But to demonize us, and to belittle the term anti-Semitism in this way,” Abraham said, “how dare German politicians tell an Israeli whose entire family survived or was killed in the Holocaust?”
Abraham, who describes himself as a Jewish descendant of Holocaust survivors, rejected any suggestion that his remarks at the awards ceremony were anti-Semitic. “We stood on the stage together, Israeli and Palestinian, demanding equality and calling for an end to the war.
He added: “Describing these positions as anti-Semitic by German politicians who are not Jewish puts me and my Jewish family in danger.”
The German Ministry of Culture and Information issued a statement after its commissioner was photographed applauding the audience after Abraham and Badra delivered their speeches. “Claudia Roth’s applause was for Jewish-Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who spoke in favor of a political solution and peaceful coexistence in the region.” The department said.
On Instagram, Roth criticized the award speeches for not mentioning the October 7 Hamas attack and hostage taking. She said she was working with Berlin's mayor and senate to “comprehensively evaluate how the Berlinale fulfills its claims to be a place for diversity, different points of view and dialogue.”
On October 7, Hamas-led militants killed an estimated 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in Israeli communities near Gaza, and took 253 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. In response, the Israeli military launched a campaign that has since killed more than 29,000 people and injured more than 70,000, according to authorities in Gaza.
As tensions rise around the conflict, cultural events have become a lightning rod for discontent in Germany – pitting those who accuse organizations of bias against others protesting their right to artistic freedom. Pro-Palestinian protests have been largely banned in Germany in the weeks since Israel sent troops into Gaza, and some artists have seen their exhibitions canceled by organizers aiming to stay away from anything that could be seen as anti-Semitic.
Israel's ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, accused German cultural institutions of “rolling out the red carpet” for anti-Israel activists over the weekend. “Under the guise of freedom of expression and art, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is celebrated.” He said in a post on X.
Festival organizer Mariette Riesenbeek said in a statement this week that the positions expressed at the awards ceremony do not reflect the festival's position. “We understand the outrage that statements made by some award winners are viewed as highly biased and, in some cases, inappropriate,” she said, adding that it would have been more “appropriate” if award winners and guests had offered “more diverse statements about these issues.” the case.”
The mayor of Berlin and the German Culture and Media Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Separately, the festival said one of its Instagram accounts was hacked on Sunday, leading to “anti-Semitic graphic text posts” about the war. The festival said that these statements do not emanate from the festival and do not represent the festival’s position.
Kate Brady and Lior Soroka contributed to this report
