A committed director
At the end of February, the Berlin International Film Festival awarded the prize for best documentary to No Other Land. Co-directed by two Israelis, journalist Yuval Abraham and cinematographer Rachel Szor, and two Palestinians, reporter Basel Adra and activist Hamdan Ballal, the work traces the destruction of the Palestinian hamlets of Masafer Yatta, near Hebron, in southern occupied West Bank by groups of Jewish settlers. Filmed over five years, the project shows the impossible resistance to the illegal and violent occupation of Palestinian territories by the Jewish state. On stage on February 24, during the award ceremony, Basel Adra accused Israel of “massacre” the Palestinian population, while denouncing German weapons sold to the Israeli army. In the process, several German political figures said they “shocked” by these words.
A director threatened
During the same ceremony, Yuval Abraham highlighted the situation “apartheid” between him and Basel Adra: “I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we will return to a land where we are not equal. » Despite the loud applause from the audience, his speech in favor of a ceasefire triggered an outcry on social networks and in the Israeli press. His speech is judged “anti-Semitic” by commentators in Israel and even by some German elected officials. In the days that followed, in addition to numerous death threats received online, a crowd gathered in front of his family’s house hoping to confront him. On his way to Israel, the director is forced to interrupt his trip for security reasons. He deplores a “dangerous use” of the notion of anti-Semitism.
An anti-occupation activist
Born into a middle-class family in Jerusalem in the mid-1990s, Yuval Abraham learned Arabic in part from one of his grandfathers, originally from Yemen. One of his grandmothers was born in an Italian concentration camp in Libya and part of her family was killed during the Holocaust. Thanks to his mastery of the language, which he teaches in Israel alongside his first reports in left-wing media, such as the Israeli magazine +972, the young man takes part in actions to prevent Israeli settlers from destroying Palestinian homes in occupied territories by settling in with families in the West Bank.
You have 23.09% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.