Berlin film festival criticises artist's call for end to apartheid in West Bank

The Berlinale film festival released a statement criticising comments made by an Israeli director, who referred to the system in the occupied West Bank as apartheid.

Israeli film maker Yuval Abraham won the Best Documentary award for his film ​​No Other Land, which follows the Palestinian activist Basel Adra as he fights against the Israeli occupation of his town Masafer Yatta in the West Bank. The film was co-directed by Adra.

“We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said onstage at Berlinale.

“Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, has to end.”

The comments were condemned by German politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said the one-sided opinion “cannot be left alone”.

“We understand the outrage that the statements made by some of the award winners were perceived as too one-sided and, in some cases, inappropriate,” the Berlinale festival said in a statement.

The Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth announced that it is launching a probe into incidents that took place over the weekend at the festival.