Israel threatens nationwide movie awards after Palestinian story wins high prize

Israel’s tradition minister has threatened to axe funding for the nation’s nationwide movie awards after The Sea, a narrative a couple of 12-year-old Palestinian boy, gained its high award.

The movie, which follows a boy from the occupied West Bank who needs to journey to Tel Aviv to see the ocean for the primary time, gained finest movie on the Ophir Awards – Israel’s equal of the Oscars.

In an announcement on X, Miki Zohar mentioned: “There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir Awards ceremony.”

As winner of the very best movie class on the Ophir awards, The Sea now turns into Israel’s entry to the worldwide movie class at subsequent 12 months’s Oscars.

It shouldn’t be but clear whether or not Zohar has the authority to defund the awards, based on native media.

Stars of The Sea gained different main prizes on the awards ceremony, together with finest actor award for 13-year-old Muhammad Gazawi – the youngest ever winner.

In the movie, Gazawi performs 12-year-old Khaled who’s denied entry to Israel at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint throughout a category journey to Tel Aviv.

Khaled then sneaks into Israel and makes an attempt to achieve the ocean whereas his father, an undocumented labourer in Israel, tries to seek out him.

During the ceremony, the movie’s producer Baher Agbariya mentioned the movie was about “every child’s right to live in peace, a basic right we will not give up on”.

But in his assertion, Zohar described the Ophir Awards as “embarrassing and detached”.

He added: “Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”

Responding to Zohar’s feedback, Assaf Amir, chair of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, mentioned: “As the never-ending war in Gaza takes a terrible toll in death and destruction, the ability to see the ‘other’… gives small hope.”

Amir added: “In the face of the Israeli government’s attacks on Israeli cinema and culture, and the calls from parts of the international film community to boycott us, the selection of The Sea is a powerful and resounding response.”

It comes after hundreds of Hollywood business professionals signed a pledge vowing to not work with Israeli movie establishments which can be “implicated in genocide”.

Israel launched its conflict in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, wherein about 1,200 individuals have been killed and 251 others have been taken hostage.

At least 65,000 individuals have been killed in Israeli assaults since then, virtually half of them girls and youngsters, based on Gaza’s Hamas-run well being ministry.

On Tuesday, a UN fee of inquiry mentioned Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s international ministry rejected the report and denounced it as “distorted and false”.