Berlin Film Festival Peace Prize winner questions Israel's right of existence

Israeli Berlin correspondent Eldad Beck told EJP that he was disgusted with the “overtly anti-Israeli” undertone which Fleifel portrayed in his film because he knew that it would be seen as harmless by the average viewer. What disturbed him most, however, was the lack of sensitivity and judgment which the patrons of the film prize showed. [...] The film's title was inspired by the novel of Palestinian activist Ghassan Kanafani. Kanafani, a former spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was implicated in the 1972 Lod Airport massacre carried out by members of the Japanese Red Army. 26 people were killed in the attack.  (Amazingly the Festival is supported by the International Auschwitz Committee...)

Oliver Bradley @ BERLIN (EJP)--- Criticism against Danish-Palestinian film director Mahdi Fleifel is growing after he publicly questioned Israel's legitimacy, only days after receiving the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The jury of the Peace Film Award (PFA) honored Fleifel's autobiographical documentary, 'A World Not Ours', for its “social-political and humanistic” background.

Jury-members were impressed with Fleifel's depictions of “hopelessness and isolation... free from the unusual patterns classifying the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians”. The jury recognized Fleifel's film as a “plea for a new peace process in the Middle East... at a time where more and more people around the world have to live in refugee camps”. But the jury members apparently did not listened to the public Q&A sessions which followed the public screenings. The simplified yet extenuated appraisals which Fleifel projects in his film - implicating Israel with sole responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem or lack of any kind of sympathy during his visit Yad Vashem memorial – is tempered through the documentary's tragic yet “heartwarming” humor that could easily win over the hearts of a non-critical moviegoer.

But the ensuing Q&A revealed Fleifel's true intentions of “creating a cliché-ridden narrative”, as one moviegoer put it, “with an overt anti-Israeli sentiment which would have disqualified the film from any sort of peace prize – had the judges remained put for several minutes after the film's screening”. At the public Q&A Fleifel did not recognize Jewish legitimacy to their biblical homeland. He also made a plea for the right of Palestinian refugees to be able to return within the 1967 borders of Israel.

In an interview with Die Welt correspondent Igal Avidan, Fleifel said “the idea of a Jewish state is ridiculous” adding that no state should have its foundation based on any form of religion. “G-d was not a real-estate agent who divided up countries based on religion”, he said. During his laudation at the Peace Film Award ceremony, German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim referred to Fleifel's simplification of the tragic, historical background which led to mass Jewish immigration to Israel, following the Holocaust. Israeli Berlin correspondent Eldad Beck told EJP that he was disgusted with the “overtly anti-Israeli” undertone which Fleifel portrayed in his film because he knew that it would be seen as harmless by the average viewer. What disturbed him most, however, was the lack of sensitivity and judgment which the patrons of the film prize showed. He ironically thanked the Green Party's Heinrich Böll Foundation for “its contribution to Middle East Peace”.

In the meantime, several members of the jury, including the Heinrich Böll Foundation have publicly distanced themselves from Fleifel. The Peace Film Prize committee is comprised of members of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Zehlendorf Peace Intiative, the Heinrich Böll Foundation of the German Green Party, the International Auschwitz Committee [!] (Internationale Auschwitz Komitee), the IPPNW and, this year, by the Jewish Community of Berlin [!]. A World Not Ours is Mahdi Fleifel's video-diary which guides viewers through the routines of every day life at his family's “hometown”, the Ain El-Heweh refugee camp in Lebanon. The film's title was inspired by the novel of Palestinian activist Ghassan Kanafani. Kanafani, a former spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was implicated in the 1972 Lod Airport massacre carried out by members of the Japanese Red Army. 26 people were killed in the attack.