Israeli film awards are Hamas? Netanyahu government goes ballistic over ‘The Sea’

The Israeli government has gone fully ballistic and threatened the funding of Israel’s own national film awards, the ‘Ophirs’, after a film about a Palestinian boy – The Sea – won the ‘Best Feature Film’ prize.

The Sea: rattling Israelis

Rattled culture minister Miki Zohar posted on X that the award for The Sea was a ‘slap in the face’, describing the awards as a ‘pathetic ceremony’ and threatening to defund it from next year:

There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir awards ceremony. Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.

The Sea is a Hebrew-language film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who goes through dangers to see the sea when Israeli soldiers refuse to let him travel with his classmates on the school bus. In a further ‘slap in the face’ for Zohar and his genocidal colleagues, the win means the film has also been selected as Israel’s entry for ‘Best International Film’ at the next Oscars.

Adding to the Zionist pain, Muhammad Gazawi, who plays the film’s hero Khaled, also won the Ophir for best actor, while his co-star Khalifa Natour won best supporting actor.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says it is investigating whether the culture ministry has the authority to withdraw the ceremony’s funding. This is not the first time Zohar has suffered ‘butthurt’ over a winning Palestinian film: last year he complained that Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land was “sabotage against the state of Israel”. Boo hoo.

Receiving the award, The Sea’s Palestinian producer Baher Agbariya said:

This film was born from love for humanity and cinema, and its message is one – the right of every child to live and dream in peace, without siege, without fear, and without war.

Many participants in the ceremony made protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, particularly the occupation’s mass murder of children.

Featured image via the Canary