Berlin – (AFP): German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider withdrew from the closing ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, his ministry confirmed on Sunday, after director Abdullah Al-Khatib accused the German government of supporting “the genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.”
Al-Khatib won an award for his film “Incidents of the Time of Siege.” The Palestinian director, born in Damascus, stood on the stage wearing a keffiyeh over his shoulder. He said in his speech: “We will remember everyone who stood with us, and we will remember everyone who stood against us” in the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023.
He added: “Some people told me that perhaps I should be careful before I say what I will say now because I am a refugee in Germany, and there are many red lines. But I don’t care, I care about my people and Palestine.”
He continued, “My final word to the German government.” You are complicit in the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza. “I think you are smart enough to realize this fact, but you choose not to care.” He concluded, “Free Palestine… until the end of the world.”
The German Ministry confirmed that Schneider left the awards ceremony “during the speech” due to “unacceptable” statements.
She explained that Carsten was “the only representative of the government” at this ceremony, although his participation was not “official.”
The seventy-sixth session of the prestigious film festival witnessed intense controversy over the aggression that destroyed the Strip and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis for its population, which numbers more than two million people.
The controversy was sparked by the head of the jury, German director Wim Wenders, after he responded to a question about Gaza by saying, “We must stay away from politics.” He added at the same press conference that films have the ability to “change the world,” but in a different way than politics.
In a joint statement, more than eighty directors and actors, including Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, denounced the festival’s “silence” towards the besieged Palestinian Strip, expressing their “dissatisfaction” with “its involvement in imposing censorship on artists who oppose the ongoing Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
Festival director Tricia Tuttle rejected these accusations, stressing that the festival supports “freedom of expression within the limits of German law.” She stressed that she realizes that the message stems from “the depth of anger and frustration over the suffering of the people of Gaza.”
