Filmmaker Refuses Berlin Award Over Israeli General’s Recognition
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania opted not to accept the “Most Valuable Film” prize at the “Cinema for Peace” ceremony on Monday, which ran alongside the festival, leaving the trophy behind in protest.
In her statement, she emphasized a sense of duty over gratitude, using the occasion to call attention to justice and accountability for Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza in 2024 while rescuers trying to reach her were also targeted.
“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,” Ben Hania said.
She added, "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."
Ben Hania also stressed that Hind’s death was “not an exception, it's part of a genocide,” criticizing politicians who justify widespread civilian killings as “self-defense” or “complex circumstances” while undermining protest movements.
"Peace requires justice and accountability, not glossy slogans," she concluded.
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