Belgian film festival nixes Palestinian trans documentary over anti-Israel threats

The Cinemamed Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival announced last Wednesday that it would not be screening Yolande Zauberman's The Belle from Gaza.

By MICHAEL STARR DECEMBER 12, 2024 19:16

People take part in a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas continues, in Brussels, Belgium, November 11, 2023. (photo credit: YVES HERMAN/REUTERS)

A Belgian film festival canceled last Wednesday the screening of a documentary about transgender Palestinians because of the threat of protest by anti-Israel activist who viewed the film as promoting a pro-Israel narrative.

The Cinemamed Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival announced last Wednesday that it would not be screening Yolande Zauberman's The Belle from Gaza that day. The cancelation was the first in Cinemamed's 30 years, and the festival expressed concern that the move could establish a precedent.

"We regret that the reasons why we had selected The Belle from Gaza could not be heard and that the public did not have the opportunity to form their own opinion on the film," said Cinemamed.

Organizers said in a statement that they were forced to make the decision due to calls for boycott and protest in front of the Cinema Palace theater where the screening was to be held. Cinemamed felt that they had did not want the rest of the festival and entries to be disrupted by the anti-Israel activists.

The activist group Brussels Against Genocide had called for the boycott, protest of the film's screening, and email campaign, claiming on a December 2 Instagram post that the film was part of Israel's "pinkwashing" strategy -- a theory that the state of Israel uses LGBTQ rights issues to divert attention from the conflict with Palestinians. 

'Dehumanizing Palestinians,' critics allege

The film, which details the experience of Palestinian transgender people who fled Gaza to live in Tel Aviv, "provides an orientalist and dehumanizing representation of Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, who are uniformly described as anti-gay and therefore deserving of murder and expulsion," said Brussels Against Genocide.

"The Belle from Gaza is not only misleading but also indifferent to the decade-long collective suffering Palestinians have been enduring, particularly those in Gaza, subjected to genocide for over a year now," the activist group continued.

Cinemamed disagreed that the documentary contributed to such a "pinkwashing" narrative or agenda, as it addressed the "difficulty of trans identity today and in all societies."

"We saw a series of intimate portraits of women in search of freedom," said Cinemamed. "The film does not evade the precariousness or the dangerousness of the existence of these women in Tel Aviv. The dangers that threaten them are as much due to the men who come to observe them, harass them, and threaten them."

The Belle from Gaza was the opening-night movie during the October Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, and had premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last spring.

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Hannah Brown contributed to this report.