The Berlinale had taken great care this year to avoid speeches in defense of Palestine. The end of the party of the previous edition – in which several filmmakers already signed a letter for the non -positioning of the contest – ended controversially due to the discourse made by the Basel Adra and Yuval filmmakers Abraham, Palestinian and Israeli respectively respectively and members of the collective of filmmakes that won with Not Other Land.
A work now nominated for the Oscar that tells the violent expulsion of the population of Masafer Yatta, in the West Bank, for the Army and the Israelis settlers. The directors spoke of “brutal expulsion” and shouts of “free Palestine”, which caused even the mayor of Berlin to describe the “anti -Semitic” gala.
This year they had measured everything so that this did not happen, and it has been two days for the end when again a speech in Palestine defense has caused even the Berlin Police to investigate the event. On this occasion it was the Chinese filmmaker Jun Li, who in an act last Saturday at a Cultural Center in Berlin, read a statement from the actor of his film Queerpanorama, The Iranian Erfan Shekarriz, who did not attend the contest by considering that Germany supports the “Israeli genocide.”
In the speech there was talk of the suffering of the Palestinians “under the brutal colonial state of Israel” and criticized the German government and the institutions of “contributing to apartheid, genocide and brutal extermination of the Palestinian people.” However, as reported by the German DW, the phrase that has caused the police performance would be “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” with which the speech closed. A phrase that for many Jews is anti -Semitic, since it asks for the disappearance of the state of Israel.
The phrase is considered punishable in Germany, as explained by the German medium, “if it is assumed as the motto of Hamas – a organization considered terrorist and prohibited in the country – and its followers.” The pressure has already been noticed by groups such as the Central Council of the Jews in Germany, which in a statement on Twitter showed its confusion against the applause that the speech received. “The Central Council spoke with the organizers of the Berlinale before this edition. We agreed on how to face open hate to Israel and anti -Semitism related to Israel, “says the central council in his X account.” We hope that this behavior is properly sanctioned, “he adds.
Thus, something that the new director of the Festival has confirmed later, and this year has explicitly asked the filmmakers to avoid certain speeches, this year. “We had indicated to our guests what political statements were especially sensitive and which are even probably criminal,” said Tuesday Tricia Tuttle, who regretted the event.
The accusations of anti -Semitism for using the motto “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” have already occurred in Spain recently. The Reina Sofía Museum was forced to withdraw the title ‘from the river to the sea’ from one of its activities for the pressures of Israelis groups, and vice president Yolanda Díaz, who said that phrase in a speech and had to clarify it later explaining that she referred to the fact that the two states, Israel and Palestine must “share a future of peace and prosperity.”
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