Kaouther Ben Hania declines Berlinale award for providing “political cover” for Israel’s genocide

Various Sources

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania declined a major award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) for her film The Voice of Hind Rajab. She left the award at the ceremony to protest against the festival’s complicity in providing “political cover” for Israel’s genocidal military actions in Gaza.

The award was presented during the Cinema for Peace and Democracy Gala, an event that exists to honor contributions in film for humanitarian causes and peace advocacy. Ben Hania stated that accepting the award would endorse the festival organizers’ actions. She also criticized the festival for “denigrating those who protest” and thereby politically legitimizing genocidal acts in Gaza.

In her speech refusing the honour she said:

“Tonight, I feel responsibility more than gratitude.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is not only about one child.

It’s about the system that made her killing possible.

What happened to Hind is not an exception.

It’s a part of a genocide.

And tonight, in Berlin, there are people who gave political cover to that genocide.

By reframing the mass-civilian killing as “self-defense.” As “complex circumstances”. By denigrating those who protest.

But as you may know, peace is not a perfume sprayed over violence so power can feel refined, and can feel comfortable. And cinema is not image-laundering.

If we speak about peace, we must speak about justice.

Justice means accountability.

Without accountability, there is no peace.

The Israeli army killed Hind Rajab; killed her family; killed the two paramedics who came to save her, with the complicity of the world’s most powerful governments and institutions.

I refuse to let their deaths become a backdrop for a polite speech about peace. Not while the structures that enabled them remain untouched.

So tonight, I will not take this award home. I leave it here as a reminder.

And when peace is pursued as a legal and moral obligation, rooted in accountability for genocide, then I will come back and accept it with joy.”

Her decision aligns with a broader movement of cultural and artistic backlash against institutions attempting to support or normalize Israel's actions.

Her speech is in direct alignment with an open letter featured in Variety, signed by 81 notable film professionals, such as actors Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, and Brian Cox, as well as directors Mike Leigh and Adam McKay.

Coordinated by the group Film Workers for Palestine, the signatories, all alumni of the festival, criticized the Berlinale for its "anti-Palestinian racism" and its lack of insistence on accountability for breaches of international law. The letter pointed out a clear double standard, contrasting the festival's silence regarding Gaza with its outspoken support for Ukraine and Iran.

The coalition strongly opposed recent statements by Jury President Wim Wenders, who claimed that filmmakers should "avoid involvement in politics." In response to Wenders's comments, Indian author Arundhati Roy recently pulled out of the festival in protest.