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Israeli Filmmaker Faces Death Threats, German Probe After Condemning Apartheid
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-filmmaker-berlinaleIsraeli Filmmaker Faces Death Threats, German Probe After Condemning Apartheid
The German government's threat to investigate Yuval Abraham "for simply acknowledging the apartheid under which his Palestinian co-director lives, is both chilling and completely absurd," said one film critic.
JULIA CONLEY
Feb 26, 2024
Despite facing death threats, Israeli documentary filmmaker Yuval Abraham said Monday that he stood "behind every word" of his condemnation of Israeli apartheid and the bombardment of Gaza, which he expressed while accepting the award for Best Documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival, also known as Berlinale.
Abraham stood alongside his co-director, Palestinian lawyer and activist Basel Adra, on Sunday as they accepted the award for their film No Other Land, about the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) demolition of homes in the occupied West Bank and eviction of people living there.
"I am free to move where I want in this land, Basel is, like millions of Palestinians, locked in the occupied West Bank," said Abraham. "This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end."
…
The outrage over the calls for an end to Israel's bombardment and oppression of Palestinians amounted to "authoritarian insanity," said journalist Mehdi Hasan. Mickey Gitzin, director of the Israeli social justice group New Israel Fund, posited that the reaction to Abraham's comments in the country's news media "indicates more than anything else the great embarrassment of most Israelis about the reality of life we are creating in the West Bank." "It is impossible to be a person with conscience and morals, to look at reality and live with it in peace," said Gitzin. "Therefore, most of us simply prefer to close our eyes, and those who are really careful, seek to kill the messenger."
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(Posted here as this article embraces Germany and film, as well as Israel/Palestine)