The Ramallah municipality was forced to cancel the screening of a Lebanese film for which Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha won a prestigious international award. The screening of “The Insult” by Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, scheduled for Oct. 22, the final day of the Palestinian Days of Cinema film festival, was canceled on the orders of Ramallah Mayor Musa Abu Hadid after protests against Doueiri. The cancellation denied a planned celebratory homecoming for the Jerusalem-born Basha, who won the coveted Best Actor Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival in September.
The protests — instigated largely by a small, ad hoc group called Youths Against Normalization — centered on Doueiri having previously produced a film in Tel Aviv, working with Israeli actors and crews. The group rationalized its protest as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
