“No other land”: award-winning documentary about Palestinian dispossession
JVL Introduction
On 24th February a joint Israeli-Palestinian production, “No Other Land,” won the prize for best documentary at the prestigious Berlin film festival.
The film tells the story of the community of Masafer Yatta in the West Bank, currently being levelled by Israeli bulldozers. It was made by two Palestinian directors and two Israeli, the Palestinians from the community in question.
Given the recent criminalisation of solidarity with Palestine in Germany this is a particularly gratifying award.
Israeli director Yuval Abraham and Palestinian director Basel Adra were there to collect the award, but extracts from Abraham’s acceptance speech were broadcast on Israeli TV channel 11 ( a public broadcaster) where it was labelled as “antisemitic”.
Legal action has won him a half-apology, but he is still being hounded in Israel with everything up to death threats.
Nirit Anderman tells the story.
We also link to the full documentary on YouTube.
RK
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Wed 28 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
'When My Speech Was Called Antisemitic, I Was Shocked'
Winning the prize for best documentary at the Berlin Film Festival was supposed to be the pinnacle of Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham’s career. The response to his acceptance speech for ‘No Other Land’ has left him stunned – but not into silence
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It was a puffed-up storm of German outrage after the Berlinale that is reported to have led to the death threats against Yuval Abraham. Inevitably the kneejerk response of the German political establishment, mainstream media and cultural authorities to the pro-Palestinian or Israel-critical statements by various artists at the festival was to scream about antisemitism and ‘Israel-hostility’ and even Holocaust denial!
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann expressed his horror at the antisemitic statements, though when subsequently asked which statement was antisemitic and how, his spokesperson was unable to give an answer.
Federal Culture Minister Claudia Roth was present at the ceremony and was then subjected to a whirlwind of criticism, not only for presiding over what is described as a debacle, but for having joined in the general applause for the prize winners. Flinching under the attacks, she claimed she had only been applauding the Israeli and not the Palestinian! In a subsequent interview in Der Spiegel, she is quoted as saying: “Among the radical left there is this disgusting open antisemitism.”
Berlin’s Culture Senator, Joe Chialo, is threatening to reintroduce his so-called ‘Antisemitism Clause’ based on the IHRA Definition to stop funding for any cultural organization or event that doesn’t comply, even though he previously had had to withdraw it for legal reasons. He also made the strange claim that the unselected Berlinale audience, famously including worldwide representation of the German and international cultural scene, was not as diverse as it should be; did he mean there should be a bigger contingent of ardent Zionists?
While cultural workers and artists refuse to be cowed by Germany’s restrictions on freedom of expression, the German establishment’s protestations have become ever shriller. German support for Israel’s horrific actions continues to give every appearance of being a dangerous cult requiring unwavering devotion.
I think Yuval experienced such a ferocious reaction to what he said because his comments were both simple and grand at the same time. He showed a courage and nobility not often seen and yet there was no arrogance nor self-righteousness in his manner.
Whenever people applaud the fight against slavery waged by black people in the early nineteenth century, should we have to remind them that in the Nat Turner-led rebellion known as the “Southampton Insurrection” (in Virginia in 1831) around 60 white people were killed more or less indiscriminately? Would our failure to do so invalidate our opposition to slavery as a practice?