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Yuval Abraham (right) with Basel Adra: "Sparking a conversation is the reason we did it"

Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP

Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham says he is facing death threats after his controversial speech at the Berlinale gala.

In a haunting post, he reports about a “right-wing Israeli mob” that visited and threatened him and close family members.

"This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly described my Berlinale prize speech, in which I called for equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid, as 'anti-Semitic,'" Abraham writes on X, formerly Twitter.

According to Abraham, the term "anti-Semitism" is being misused by Germans "not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire that ends the killing in Gaza and releases." of the Israeli hostages".

This emptying of the word would put "Jews all over the world at risk."

Because of his family history, Abraham finds it particularly outrageous, he says, "that German politicians in 2024 have the audacity to use this term as a weapon against me in a way that endangers my family."

Abraham's grandmother was born in a Libyan concentration camp; much of his grandfather's family was murdered by Germans during the Holocaust.

In the post, Abraham also expressed concern about the safety of Palestinian co-director Basel Adra.

He lives "under military occupation in the midst of violent settlements in Masafer Yatta," where his life is threatened.

"He's in far more danger than I am."

Abraham welcomes the fact that her film “No Other Land” has sparked an international debate: “Sparking a conversation is the reason why we did it.” The filmmaker can handle criticism of what has been said, but not demonization.

"If that's what you do with your guilt in the Holocaust - I don't want your guilt."

At the gala, the Israeli filmmaker Abraham, who was honored together with the Palestinian Adra for the film "No Other Land" about the settlement policy in the West Bank, spoke of a policy of apartheid.

“In two days we will return to a land where we are not equal,” Abraham said at the time.

»I can move freely in the country; Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is trapped in the West Bank.

This apartheid situation between us, this inequality must come to an end.

eru/dpa