Yahoo News IDFA Documentary Festival Opening Night Interrupted By Pro-Palestinian Protesters With “From The River To The Sea” Banner
Leading members of the Israeli film community are accusing the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam of “allowing and applauding” a pro-Palestinian protest that interrupted IDFA’s opening night ceremony, which saw three activists take the stage with a banner emblazoned with the slogan, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
IDFA’s artistic director, Orwa Nyrabia, was in the middle of welcoming remarks Wednesday night when the demonstrators took the stage. Protesters shouted, “We stand up for Palestine! It’s a genocide! Ceasefire now, ceasefire now!” in reference to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following the devastating October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens. Some audience members initially hooted, but then many applauded. Nyrabia clapped after the protesters finished their chants and he also applauded as they left the stage.
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Meanwhile at @idfa pic.twitter.com/r5SLQExBXC
— Festivalists (@Festivalists) November 9, 2023
In a statement today, Nyrabia said he had not seen the wording on the protesters’ banner, a slogan the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations have labeled antisemitic hate speech that advocates for Israel’s destruction.
“I apologize for not paying attention to the banner in the moment,” Nyrabia wrote. “I clapped to welcome freedom of speech, and not to welcome the slogan. I only learned about the slogan on the banner from the team as I went backstage when the opening film started.” He said the slogan “is a triggering statement and an offensive declaration for many, regardless of who carries it. It does not represent IDFA, and was and will not be endorsed.”
More than a dozen members of Israel’s film community – including Israeli Film Academy chairman Assaf Amir and Limor Pinhasov, chairwoman of the Israel Directors Guild – issued a statement obtained by Deadline that condemned the protest and criticized Nyrabia’s response to it.
“We are reaching out to express our uttermost dismay, disappointment and concern by the event that occurred during the opening ceremony of IDFA on November 8th,” the group wrote in a letter addressed to “IDFA team, board of directors, and the int’l film community.”
“Allowing and applauding a sign which states that ‘From River to the Sea Palestine will be Free’ is a call for the eradication of Israel, the Jewish homeland and of Jews in general. Applauding and cheering the protesters on, was the festival’s director, Mr. Orwa Nyrabia, which allows us to believe that this is IDFA‘s official and reprehensible stance towards Israel and towards Jews.”
The statement continued, “We are at a crucial and critical time in history and words matter- Nyrabia’s muted and pale official response to the event ‘IDFA… distances itself from the slogan stated on the activists’ canvas’ further iterates that he is fully aware of the horrific meaning of this slogan, the hate it mongers and the antisemitism it invokes. We see this as a personal attack against us, as citizens of the land you called to eliminate and your public support as incitement that can cost lives.”
[See below for the full statements from IDFA, Nyrabia, and members of the Israeli film community].
Nyrabia’s remarks disavowing the protest banner were contained within a larger statement issued by IDFA, which said in part, “IDFA would like to clearly state that we understand that the slogan was hurtful, and sincerely apologize for how this happened. There are many ways that people use or read this slogan, and that various sides use it in opposing ways, all of which we do not agree with, and we believe that this slogan should not be used in any way and by anybody anymore. IDFA does not endorse or agree with any of that.”
The IDFA statement continued, “We do not endorse or accept justification for any violence, mass murder, collective punishment, dehumanization, oppression, militarization, injustice, or chauvinism, no matter from whom or against whom. We do not accept to see history with one eye, to simplify human tragedy, or to generalize and judge any people by their worst. We stand by the ethics of valuing human life, all and every human life.”
The IDFA controversy comes on the heels of a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress, over her remarks on the Israel-Hamas war. The official censure condemned her for using the phrase “From the River to the Sea,” which the declaration described as, “widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel.”
Rep. Tlaib, who represents Michigan’s 12th District, has defended the slogan as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.”
This is the full statement from members of Israel’s film community:
November 10, 2023
To IDFA team, board of directors and the int’l film industry
On behalf of the documentary and film community in Israel we are reaching out to express our uttermost dismay, disappointment and concern by the event that occurred during the opening ceremony of IDFA on November 8th.
Allowing and applauding a sign which states that “From River to the Sea Palestine will be Free” is a call for the eradication of Israel, the Jewish homeland and of Jews in general. Applauding and cheering the protesters on, was the festival’s director, Mr. Orwa Nyrabia, which allows us to believe that this is IDFA‘s official and reprehensible stance towards Israel and towards Jews.
These are undeniably terrible times for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are suffering daily, as they are for the citizens of Israel, in the wake of the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7th, and for the 240 hostages who are still being held by the terror organization.
We are at a crucial and critical time in history and words matter- Nyrabia’s muted and pale official response to the event “IDFA… distances itself from the slogan stated on the activists’ canvas” further iterates that he is fully aware of the horrific meaning of this slogan, the hate it mongers and the antisemitism it invokes.
We see this as a personal attack against us, as citizens of the land you called to eliminate and your public support as incitement that can cost lives.
We expect and implore the festival to support a humanitarian solution and show empathy- rather than to give a stage to antisemitic sentiment and extremist ideology which only deepens hatred and polarization.
As an industry, and as a people, we have always championed and excelled at showcasing a wide variety of voices, opinions and perspectives in our works – but we are united in our stance that this event should be condemned. We call on the director of IDFA, and on its board of directors to clearly and resoundingly distance themselves, reject and denounce these calls for violence – and withdraw any platform for those who knowingly incite for the annihilation of Israel, instigating violence and giving rise to antisemitic sentiments against Jews everywhere.
Signed on behalf of the Israeli film community:
Hagit Ben Yaakov – Chairwoman, Israeli Documentary Forum
Pnina Halfon Lang – Executive Director, CoPro – The Israeli Content Marketing Foundation Assaf Amir – Chairman, Israeli Film Academy
Adar Shafran – Chairman, Israeli Producers Union
Limor Pinhasov – Chairwoman, Israel Directors Guild
Ayala Sharot – Chairwoman, Animation Guild of Israel
Nadav Ben Simon – Executive Director, Screen Writers Guild of Israel
Limor Haaronivtz – Docaviv Int’l Film Festival
Roni Mahadav- Levin Jerusalem Film Festival
Yaron Shamir – Artistic Director, Haifa Film Festival
Riki Blich – Chairwoman, Shaham, The Israeli Actors Organization
Galy Reshef – Chairman, ACT – The Israel Association of Cinema and TV Professionals Tamir Hod, Cinema South Film Festival
Eli Ohana – Chairman, Alma – Association for the Production Professions
Guy Lavie – VP Documentaries, yes TV
Rinat Klein – Head of Channel 8
This is the statement from IDFA regarding the Wednesday night protest at the festival’s opening ceremony:
We are deeply thankful to the many friends and colleagues, from the Jewish community in Amsterdam and internationally, from Israel, from Palestine, and many other places, for reaching out to IDFA, over the past 24 hours, following the surprise protest that took place on our opening night and the hurtful slogan written on a banner by the protestors, for voicing their concerns, expressing the hurt they felt. Our mission is to create a safe and open space for civic debate, to exercise freedom and democracy, equity, and to present a complex view of the world and of the human condition. Our mission and our intentions are the opposite of hurting anybody or making them feel unsafe. That slogan does not represent us, and we do not endorse it in any way. We are truly sorry that it was hurtful to many.
It was a difficult journey towards the opening night. Like every other cultural institution, IDFA is trying to be respectful and useful and that is not easy within the current political climate. We sincerely opted for an approach that is open, that respects everybody, every pain, and provides a safe platform for all voices. It is a difficult and a risky approach, and it does not make any side particularly happy with us. But, we believe in this position being necessary, being the role and the true meaning of a documentary film festival. The past month was extreme, with news of death tolls filling the news, and various forces pressuring for a clear-cut position that could lead to marginalizing the pain of the other. Our Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia has spoken and written about this choice of ours many times over the past month. Also on stage at the opening night:
“During the opening night, I spoke on stage about this open position. I said that during such dark times a festival is necessary, and a festival proves its worth by providing that missing safe space for everybody, for a serious and responsible civic debate through the art of film. I repeated that everybody is welcome here within the lines of respecting the other. As I was moving to the next part of the event, I heard chants from the balcony, and people took the stage. The slogan written on the banner held by the young protesters, which later was reported as very visible to the audience but not to me on stage, is a triggering statement and an offensive declaration for many, regardless of who carries it. It does not represent IDFA, and was and will not be endorsed. I apologize for not paying attention to the banner in the moment. I clapped to welcome freedom of speech, and not to welcome the slogan. I only learned about the slogan on the banner from the team as I went backstage when the opening film started.”
IDFA would like to clearly state that we understand that the slogan was hurtful, and sincerely apologize for how this happened. There are many ways that people use or read this slogan, and that various sides use it in opposing ways, all of which we do not agree with, and we believe that this slogan should not be used in any way and by anybody anymore. IDFA does not endorse or agree with any of that. We do not endorse or accept justification for any violence, mass murder, collective punishment, dehumanization, oppression, militarization, injustice, or chauvinism, no matter from whom or against whom. We do not accept to see history with one eye, to simplify human tragedy, or to generalize and judge any people by their worst. We stand by the ethics of valuing human life, all and every human life.
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