Producer warns against Israeli judicial reform at Berlin Film Festival: “You may have just seen the last Israeli film that represents the Israel we know”

Israeli filmmaker Yoav Roeh spoke passionately at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday about the threat to freedom of expression in Israel posed by a planned overhaul of the country’s judiciary by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

“We are here to celebrate our film and it is also a celebration of Israeli cinema. But when we return to Israel in a few days, it will not be the same Israel that we left,” he told the audience at the end of Asaf Saban’s performance delegation (Ha’Mishlahat).

“The Israeli parliament is about to destroy the Israeli democratic system. The new far-right government is enforcing fascist and racist laws. Israel commits suicide after 75 years of existence.”

Netanyahu emerged victorious from last November’s elections to form Israel’s most far-right, religiously conservative government in its nearly 75-year history.

The controversial judicial reform plan drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets last week as it tried to get the reforms voted through parliament.

The reforms would give the government control over the appointment of judges and the power to override Supreme Court decisions.

Opponents say it would be an attack on Israel’s Fundamental Laws, the State of Israel’s thirteen quasi-constitutional laws that underpin its institutions and also protect civil liberties.

delegationShown in the sidebar of Generation 14Plus is about the memory of the Holocaust as seen through the story of a class of Israeli teenagers on a school trip to the camps in Poland.

“You may have just seen the last Israeli film that represents the Israel we know and that will soon ban journalism and artists’ freedom of expression. That’s where it’s going,” Roeh said.

In the cinema, the producer appealed to the staff of the Israeli embassy to oppose the government’s actions.

“We have guests from the Israeli embassy here in this cinema,” he said. “We want to call on them to stand up together with all Israeli embassies in the world against this violent revolution by far-right forces. Now is the time to raise your voice, because tomorrow may be too late to save our country.”

Roeh and Aurit Zamir produced the film under their Tel Aviv-based banner Gum Films, with Agnieszka Dziedzic at Kai Studio in Warsaw and Roshanak Behesht Nedjad at In Good Company in Leipzig.

Already after their production, the two felt the heat of Israel’s new nationalist government Two children a day by Israeli director David Wachsmann was attacked last month by the newly appointed Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar.

The minister said the work – which examines Israel’s detention of Palestinian children in the West Bank – brought the country and its military into disrepute and threatened to retroactively withdraw government funding given to the film for its production.

Zohar said he is working on a measure that would require filmmakers and producers to sign a document promising not to tarnish the reputation of the state of Israel or its military in order to secure state funding.

“Within the law you can make any films you want, but we don’t have to finance them,” he said.

If judicial reforms proceed, it will become more difficult for Israeli film and television workers to challenge such a claim in court.