Israeli Director Says He Is Getting Death Threats After German Officials Criticized Berlin Film Festival Acceptance Speeches As “Anti-Semitic”

deadline.com:

Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, who last week picked up the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival, has said he has received death threats and had to cancel his flight home after German officials and Israeli media described his acceptance speech as “anti-Semitic”.

In a post on X, Abraham, who is part of a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that took home the prize for best documentary for No Other Land, said his family has also faced physical threats since Saturday’s awards ceremony. “A right-wing Israeli mob came to my family’s home yesterday to search for me, threatening close family members who fled to another town in the middle of the night.

I am still getting death threats and had to cancel my flight home,” Abraham wrote on X. “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.’ 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.” Abraham’s acceptance speech criticized a “situation of apartheid” in Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He was standing alongside his Palestinian co-director Basel Adra. The speech was one of several moments during the closing ceremony where filmmakers expressed solidarity with Palestine.