Israel’s Culture Minister, Miki Zohar, has threatened to withdraw government funding for the country’s national film awards following the victory of The Sea, a Palestinian story, at this year’s Ophir Awards—Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The Sea tells the story of a 12-year-old boy from the occupied West Bank who dreams of visiting the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv for the first time. The film won Best Film at the Ophir Awards and automatically becomes Israel’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Academy Awards, according to the BBC.
In a statement on X, Zohar condemned the ceremony, calling it “an embarrassment” and “a slap in the face of Israeli citizens,” adding that taxpayers should not fund a ceremony “that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.” Local media noted that it remains unclear whether the minister has the legal authority to revoke the awards’ funding.
The film also won several other honors, including Best Actor for 13-year-old Muhammad Gazawi, who became the youngest-ever recipient in the Ophir Awards’ history. Gazawi plays Khaled, a boy who is stopped at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint during a school trip and later sneaks into Israel in search of the sea, while his father, an undocumented laborer, desperately searches for him.
Accepting the award, producer Baher Agbariya said the film represents “every child’s right to live in peace, a basic right we will not give up on.”
Assaf Amir, chair of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, defended the jury’s decision, saying, “As the never-ending war in Gaza causes death and destruction, the ability to see the ‘other’ gives small hope… the selection of The Sea is a powerful and resounding response to government attacks on Israeli cinema and culture.”
The controversy emerges amid growing international scrutiny of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Since October 2023, more than 65,000 Palestinians, nearly half of them women and children, have reportedly been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The conflict began after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which left around 1,200 dead and 251 hostages.
This week, a United Nations commission accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a claim the Israeli foreign ministry rejected as “distorted and false.” The backlash has extended to the global film industry, with thousands of Hollywood professionals pledging not to collaborate with Israeli film institutions accused of being “implicated in genocide.”
