An Israeli film director says he has received death threats and his family have been forced to flee their homes after he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to “apartheid” in the West Bank.
Yuval Abraham said a “right-wing Israeli mob” threatened his family at their home on Monday and he had to cancel his flight back from Germany, where Mr Abraham and his Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, received an award at Berlinale film festival.
In his acceptance speech on Saturday for No Other Land, which chronicles Mr Adra’s struggle to preserve his West Bank village as Israeli settlers encroach around it, Mr Abraham demanded an end to “inequality” between the pair.
After the remarks, Berlin mayor Kai Wagner said there was no place for “antisemitism” in the art scene, while Israeli ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor said “antisemitic discourse” had been met with applause.
Mr Abraham responded: “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.
“I find it particularly outraging that German politicians in 2024 have the audacity to weaponise this term against me in a way that endangered my family.”
On receiving the award for best documentary, Mr Abraham said: “I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days we will go back to a land where we are not equal. I am living under a civilian law, and Basel is under military law.
“We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights, Basel is not having voting rights.
“I am free to move where I want in this land, Basel is like millions of Palestinians locked in the occupied West Bank.
“This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end.”
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