Berlin Mayor Criticizes “Anti-Semitic” Berlinale Closing Ceremony As Hackers Post Ceasefire Message To Fest’s Social

A high-politicized edition of the Berlin Film Festival ended Saturday, but divisions surrounding political messaging during the festival appear to be ongoing. 

Sunday afternoon, the official Berlinale shared a statement on its social media account announcing that it plans to “file criminal charges against unknown persons” who it said shared “posts about the war in the Middle East.” The posts mentioned by the festival were shared on the official Berlinale Panorama Instagram account and featured a series of infographics. 

“Genocide is Genocide. We are all complicit,” the first infographic said. 

Another post claimed that festival staff had decided to “shed the idea that German guilt absolves us of our country’s history or our current crimes,” and in turn, they have decided to call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” to violence in Gaza. 

The posts ended with the message: “From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present — we have always been on the wrong side of history. But it’s not too late to change our future.”

The posts were pulled by the festival shortly after they went live, but screenshots from keen observers have gone viral across multiple social media platforms. The festival has said the posts did not originate from the festival, and the sentiments “do not represent Berlinale’s position.” 

As the hacked Berlinale’s posts began circulating online, Kai Wegner, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, shared a series of messages on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account that described the Berlinale closing ceremony as an “intolerable relativization.” 

The closing ceremony was a charged affair with multiple winning filmmakers and jury members, including American filmmaker Eliza Hittman, using their time on stage to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“As a Jewish filmmaker who won the Silver Bear in 2020, it is important for me to be here,” Hittman said before highlighting her anti-war stance: “There is no just war, and the more people try to convince themselves there’s a just war, the more they commit a grotesque act of self-deception.”

Another of the night’s charged speeches came from Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, a Palestinian-Israeli filmmaking duo behind the Berlinale documentary award winner No Other Land. 

“We need to call for a political solution to end the occupation,” Israeli filmmaker Abraham said. 

“I’m Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. In two days, we return to a land where we aren’t equal. I’m living under civilian law, and Basel lives under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights. Basel does not have voting rights.”

He added: “This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality has to end. We need to call for a ceasefire.”

Adra accused Israel of “massacre” and criticized German arms sales to Israel. Meanwhile, U.S. filmmaker Ben Russel, who won an award for his film Direct Action took to the stage wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh – a protective covering for the head and face widely seen as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

Hamas’s terror attack on Israel last year led to 1,200 deaths. Israel’s air and ground offensive in response has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population from their homes, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation and the spread of disease. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says 29,692 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, two-thirds of them women and children.

In his posts on the ceremony, Wegner of the Christian Democratic Union party said of the state-backed festival: “Anti-Semitism has no place in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene. I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”

Wegner didn’t specify which aspect of the ceremony he took issue with, but added: “Berlin has a clear stance when it comes to freedom. Berlin is firmly on Israel’s side. There is no doubt about that. Full responsibility for the deep suffering in Israel and the Gaza Strip lies with Hamas. It [Hamas] alone has the power to end this suffering by releasing all the hostages and laying down her weapons. There is no room for relativization here.”

Das, was gestern auf der Berlinale vorgefallen ist, war eine untragbare Relativierung. In Berlin hat Antisemitismus keinen Platz, und das gilt auch für die Kunstszene. Ich erwarte von der neuen Leitung der Berlinale, sicherzustellen, dass sich solche Vorfälle nicht wiederholen.

— Kai Wegner (@kaiwegner) February 25, 2024

Wegner was elected mayor in April 2023, and since the outbreak of the latest crisis in the Middle East, has often voiced his support for Israel.

We have reached out to the Berlinale for comment. The festival has yet to respond to our request but told the AFP new agency that filmmakers’ statements were independent and “in no way represent” the opinions of the Berlinale, and that statements should be accepted as long as they “respect the legal framework”. Festival management added they “understood the indignation” aroused by the remarks [made by filmmakers], which “felt to be too one-sided”.

This year’s Berlinale was Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek’s final edition in charge. The next edition will be led by former London Film Festival head Tricia Tuttle, who was in the audience at the closing ceremony and received a shoutout from Rissenbeek. On the night, French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop won the festival’s prestigious Golden Bear with the documentary Dahomey. The pic explores the repatriation of looted colonial-era art from France to Benin, West Africa.