Germany launches probe over Berlin film festival anti-Israel row

German officials will investigate how Berlin film festival winners were able to make “one-sided” comments condemning Israel’s war in Gaza at the event’s finale, a government spokeswoman says.

At Saturday’s awards ceremony, several winners were accused of making biased remarks on stage in relation to Israel’s war against Hamas, which began after the October 7 assault by the terror group that killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw 253 taken hostage.

US filmmaker Ben Russell, wearing a Palestinian scarf, accused Israel of committing “genocide.”

Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra said the Palestinian population was being “massacred” by Israel, to applause from the audience.

“It is unacceptable that… the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7 October was not mentioned,” government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann tells a press briefing in Berlin on Monday.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz “agrees that such a one-sided stance cannot be allowed to stand,” she says.

“In any debate on this topic, it is of course important to keep in mind the event that triggered this renewed escalation of the Middle East conflict — namely the Hamas attack on 7 October,” she says.

The culture minister and the Berlin mayor will review what happened and hold talks with the festival’s incoming director to ensure it does not happen in future, she said.

But Culture Minister Claudia Roth and mayor Kai Wegner have also found themselves in hot water over the ceremony.

A report in top tabloid Bild carried a picture it said showed the pair applauding Adra’s remarks.