During this year’s Berlinale, the Teddy Award jury issued a collective statement urging for solidarity and action amidst ongoing military operations in Gaza.
The Teddy Award is the oldest international queer film award, focusing on films with LGBT themes and topics.
Cypriot jury member Diego Armando Aparicio read a statement prepared collectively by the jury, criticising the absence of criticism against Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza, as well as the absence of wide calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza strip.
The other jury members consisted of Cerise Howard, Kami Sid, Luís Fernando Moura and Vic Carmen Sonne.
Criticism surrounding Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been increasing within European cultural events, including the Berlinale, as accusations of war crimes and ethnic cleansing continue to surround Israel’s military operations.
Israel is presently under trial for the crime of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a case brought to the ICJ by South Africa. A final decision by the court is expected to take years.
The statement verbetim:
Before yesterday’s final deliberations on the films we watched, we spent a good chunk of time acknowledging that something didn’t quite feel right. It’s hard to remind ourselves why our work or this artform that we’re championing carry any meaning or significance, when we can’t find a communal space to collectively denounce the grave injustices currently taking place in Gaza. Any form of queer liberation will always amount to so very little if it relies on the oppression of others and the perpetuation of the structures that uphold that oppression. None of us are free, until we’re all free.
Demanding the end of a war should be neither complicated nor controversial. Before our duty here as a jury, defending films, we first and foremost have a duty as human beings to preserve our integrity. It is our duty, given the privilege of being on this stage, to express in public our solidarity with the people of Palestine; and to unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide, and every form of war, apartheid and illegal occupation that have led to the loss of so many thousands of innocent lives, and the displacement of millions.
The Berlinale’s lack of a concrete stance as an institution has left a great many of the people attending this year disappointed, to say the very least. This was precisely why the statements, protests, and sense of solidarity that came from the people adjacent to; surrounding; or working within this institution felt all the more urgent and significant. We are making this acknowledgment here tonight, drawing courage from those that came before us – the festival workers, the filmmakers, the activists, the queers, from all over the world – in the hope that this sense of community is strengthened and our voices amplified, when we speak out these words:
RETURN ALL HOSTAGES. FREE PALESTINE. CEASEFIRE NOW.
