2024-03-02 18:05:07
The German media describe the just ended year of the Berlinale film festival as disgraced. The famous show was overshadowed by a scandal when anti-Israel slogans appeared on the official Instagram account of the Panorama festival section. At the closing galas, the artists stood up for Palestine, but did not criticize the atrocities of the Palestinian terrorist movement Hamas. The incident will have criminal consequences.
“For culture, such a conclusion of the Berlinale was shameful,” writes the magazine Der Spiegel, which assumes that the events at the festival will be discussed for several more days.
The biggest shock was caused by a trio of anti-Israel posts with anti-Semitic undertones on the Instagram account of the Berlinale section. The most shameful German media refers to the English slogan Free Palestine – From the River to the See, which is the demand for a free Palestine from the Jordan River to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This slogan does not take into account the existence of Israel.
Now deleted the posts further labeled Israeli military actions in the Palestinian territories as genocide and called on Germany to stop funding “Israeli state terror”.
The management of the festival responded by saying that the posts did not create and do not express its position. “We immediately deleted them and started investigating how the incident happened. We will file a criminal complaint against the unknown perpetrators,” the organizers announced. They talk about the fact that hackers could be behind the action.
But Saturday’s award ceremony also drew criticism. American filmmaker Ben Russell, whose documentary Direct Action succeeded in the Encounters section and received an honorable mention in the documentary competition, came on stage and on the shoulders he wore an untied Arab male head covering, the keffiyeh, which can be seen as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. He subsequently accused Israel of alleged genocide in the Gaza Strip, Deadline.com reports.
American filmmaker Eliza Hittman, winner of the 2020 Silver Bear, also spoke. “No war is justifiable. The more we try to justify a war, the more we lie to our own pockets,” said the artist, who, according to the Spanish listu El País already on the red carpet at the opening night she called for an immediate truce. She had this challenge pinned on her back.
The crew of the Norwegian co-production No Other Land, which received the award for best documentary this year and which was also appreciated by the audience, also sharply defined itself against Israel. Among other things, it tells about the often terrible behavior of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
The directors, Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Juval Abraham, said it was difficult for them to celebrate when Israel massacred tens of thousands of people in Gaza. They blame Germany for selling weapons to the Jewish state, and call Israel’s rule over the Gaza Strip apartheid.
“Applause in the audience. Criticism of Hamas atrocities? None,” summarizes Der Spiegel. And similarly, the RND media house comments on the conclusion of the Berlinale. “There was a clear criticism of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory on stage, but no mention of the Islamist Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023,” notes the media group, Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
Anti-Israeli remarks already divided the audience at Friday’s Teddy Award for queer-themed films. The jury at the ceremony supported the Palestinians and criticized Israel. Some of the guests responded with boos, while others applauded. The evaluators did not address the responsibility of Hamas. At the end of the statement, they only called for the liberation of Palestine, a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. The fact that hostages from Israel were taken to the Gaza Strip by members of Hamas last October was not reported.
Another incident took place on the steps of Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau gallery, where several activists lay down covered in imitation blood with a sign saying “Welcome to the red carpet”. Others posted pro-Palestinian slogans inside the exhibition space, reports Variety.com.
Berlin mayor Kai Wegner events at the end of the festival denotes for the unacceptable relativization of the situation in the Middle East. “Anti-Semitism has no place in Berlin, and this also applies to the cultural scene. I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again,” the mayor wrote on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to him, Berlin is fully on the side of Israel, and all responsibility for the suffering in Israel and the Gaza Strip is solely borne by Hamas. This movement, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union, attacked Israel last October. In response to the terrorist attack, the latter undertakes a large-scale military intervention in the Gaza Strip.
Berlin’s state minister of culture, Joe Chialo, now criticizes “anti-Israeli propaganda”, which, according to him, has no business on the stage of events in the German capital.
Until now, the Berlinale has been led by artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariette Rissenbeek, from April the American Tricia Tuttle will take over the festival.
Mariette Rissenbeek and Chatrian approached events in the Middle East cautiously from the beginning of this year. At the opening press conference, they jointly declared their sympathy for all victims of the conflict and condemned both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
At the same time, around six dozen Berlinale collaborators addressed an open letter to them. They demanded that the festival issue a clear statement on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, just like when it condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2022.
Four artists have pulled their films from the festival’s affiliated experimental section, Forum Expanded, this year in protest of German support for Israel. They did so in accordance with the goal of the Strike Germany movement, which precisely because of German support for Israel calls for a boycott of those parts of German culture that are partially or fully funded by the state. This year’s Berlinale received 12.6 million euros from the federal government, which translates to about 319 million crowns.
Video: The West will not understand what is happening in Gaza
The ideas of Israelis and Palestinians are mutually incompatible, Aktuálně.cz reporter Martin Novák said in the Spotlight show at the end of November last year. | Video: Team Spotlight