“Getting death threats”: Israeli filmmaker after Berlinale speech criticized as anti-semitic

Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, winner of the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival, said that he has been receiving death threats following his acceptance speech at the festival. He further disclosed that his family has also encountered physical threats since the awards ceremony.

While receiving top honour for his film “No Other Land”, the filmmaker criticized his government’s (Israel) treatment of Palestinians, saying, “In two days, we will go back to a land where we are not equal. … We need to call for a cease-fire.”

Abraham’s speech has been condemned by German and Israeli officials who accused him of anti-semitism remarks. Abraham was accepting the honour with his Palestinian co-director Basel Adra at the Berlin Film Festival, where Adra, said that it was “very hard for me to celebrate when there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered and massacred,” urging Germany to end weapon exports to Israel.

In a Twitter post, Abraham wrote, “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. 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’,” he wrote.

The 29-year-old filmmaker said that the death threats are fueled because Israeli media and German politicians unjustly labeled his speech as ‘antisemitic’, where he advocated for equality between Israelis and Palestinians and called for a ceasefire, and an end to apartheid.

“This misuse of the term not only aims to silence Palestinian critics of Israel but also stifles Israelis like myself who advocate for a ceasefire to stop the violence in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages. This misuse of ‘antisemitism’ dilutes its meaning and poses a danger to Jews worldwide,” he said.

After the speech on Saturday, German politicians criticized his remarks as “one-sided” and accused the festival’s organizers of not challenging them. In a tweet, Berlin Mayor Kai Wagner said that the remarks were “unacceptable” and that antisemitism “has no place in Berlin,” adding that he expected festival organizers “to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”

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