Uproar on the Berlinale: Carsten Schneider criticizes pro-Palestinian speech – and leaves the corridor | EUROtoday

It’s a gesture that resonates. Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) has distanced himself from a pro-Palestinian speech on the Berlinale awards ceremony.

A spokesman for his ministry instructed the German Press Agency that he was the one consultant of the federal authorities on the gala. Schneider left the corridor in the course of the speech by the Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib.

Alkhatib’s movie “Chronicles From the Siege” was named greatest characteristic debut. The filmmaker accused the German authorities on stage of being a companion in “the genocide in the Gaza Strip.” “Federal Minister Schneider considers these statements to be unacceptable,” mentioned the spokesman.

Israel denies committing genocide within the Gaza Strip – that is additionally the place of the German authorities – and speaks of self-defense after the terrorist assault on October 7, 2023.

Alkhatib, who introduced a Palestinian flag on stage, mentioned someday there might be a beautiful movie competition in Gaza. “We will remember everyone who stood with us and we will remember everyone who was against us,” he mentioned. “A free Palestine from now until the end of the world.” Applause and heckling might be heard within the corridor.

The Lebanese filmmaker Marie-Rose Osta, who received the Golden Bear for greatest brief movie, had beforehand criticized Israel’s conduct of the conflict on stage. Moderator Désirée Nosbusch then mentioned: “And I am sure that our hearts go out to all the people who suffer, be it through wars or through terrorism.”

Gaza conflict is another excuse for controversy surrounding the Berlinale

This just isn’t the primary scandal over the Gaza conflict on the Berlinale. Dozens of worldwide artists, together with Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, criticized the Berlinale’s “silence” on the Gaza conflict in an open letter.

The cause was that jury president Wim Wenders answered a query in regards to the Middle East battle and the function of the competition at a press convention: “We have to stay out of politics.” The Indian writer Arundhati Roy subsequently canceled her participation within the competition.

The letter’s signatories then mentioned they had been “appalled” by the competition’s “institutional silence” and “dismayed” by its “involvement in censorship of artists who reject Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Among others, Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (impartial) then defended the administration of the Berlinale. “Of course there is no censorship. The Berlinale is a place where opinions really clash and where there is open discussion.” It is the “most political festival ever”. Freedom of expression additionally contains saying nothing. “I don’t think artists should be patronized politically,” mentioned Weimer. “The Berlinale is not an NGO with a camera and director, but it is a place where freelance filmmakers develop and where they openly discuss with each other and address all topics. And that is what happens.”

Berlinale boss Tricia Tuttle additionally rejected the censorship allegations. It just isn’t true that they “silenced” or “intimidated” filmmakers, Tuttle instructed the German Press Agency. She was shocked by the letter and it was “incredibly hard” to learn it. She knew a number of the signatories and wished that they had contacted her first.