Jewish filmmaker slams Germany for weaponising antisemitism to 'silence critics of Israel'

Yuval Abraham is a Jewish filmmaker and journalist who is “the son of Holocaust survivors“. Because he has criticised Israel’s crimes, he has faced cynical accusations of antisemitism in Germany. But the co-director of No Other Land, a documentary about the ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, is not pulling his punches. And he’s shaming German genocide apologists in the process.

No Other Land

After “Berlin’s official city portal” described No Other Land as having “antisemitic tendencies”, he tweeted:

It pains me to see how, after murdering most of my family in the holocaust, you empty the word antisemitism of meaning to silence critics of Israel’s occupation in the West Bank (the topic of our film) and legitimize violence against Palestinians. I feel unsafe and unwelcome in Berlin of 2024 as a left-wing Israeli and will take legal action.

Speaking at a showing of the film, meanwhile, he said:

antisemitism… carries so much weight for me as a Jewish person. I grew up with the stories of my family being murdered in the Holocaust. My grandmother was born in a concentration camp. And to hear the way you are weaponising this word to silence criticism of Israel’s occupation… Hundreds of people are being killed [in Gaza] every day, and to hear you use the deaths of my own family to legitimise this and to accuse me of antisemitism… it’s so shameful and so wrong and so unjust. And history is knocking on Germany’s door again and you’re failing.

Standing ovation in Berlin as Yuval Abraham speaks of Germany’s “shameful” abuse of the term antisemitism and its own historical responsibility https://t.co/XQkJwBLJKw pic.twitter.com/8qkWMFN7md

— James Jackson (@derJamesJackson) November 12, 2024

After Abraham’s comments, the Berlin portal backtracked, saying:

An earlier version of the text stated that this film “exhibits anti-Semitic tendencies”. This assessment was incorrect and inadmissible. It has therefore been removed. Berlin.de apologizes for this error.

“Can genocidal societies ever transform away from their genocidal pasts?”

Before Israel’s current genocide in Gaza, Germany was its second-biggest arms supplier. A firm ally of Israel, Germany has kept the weapons flowing despite the apartheid state’s war crimes.

Following the European country’s smearing of Abraham’s work No Other Land, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said:

The German state and German elites have clearly learned nothing from their history. They continue to persecute Jews without so much as a moment of hesitation if it serves their raison d’etat. Now they have added Palestinians as new victims of German genocide — Palestinians who inherited the consequences of Germany’s crimes!

This raises serious questions about what should be done with serial genocide states. Can genocidal societies ever transform away from their genocidal pasts?

And this wasn’t even the first time German figures had targeted Abraham.

When he spoke at Berlin film festival Berlinale upon receiving its best documentary award for No Other Land, Abraham criticised apartheid and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. A number of German politicians responded by claiming his speech was antisemitic. As a result, he received death threats while others intimidated his family members in Israel. Abraham reacted by insisting:

Germany is weaponising a term that was designed to protect Jews, not only to silence Palestinians but also to silence Jews and Israelis who are critical of the occupation and use the word apartheid. This is also dangerous because it devalues the term antisemitism.

Our film “No Other Land” on occupied Masafer Yatta’s brutal expulsion won best documentary in Berlinale. Israel’s channel 11 aired this 30 second segment from my speech, insanely called it “anti semitic” – and I’ve been receiving death threats since. I stand behind every word. pic.twitter.com/2burPfZeKO

— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) February 25, 2024