(NEW YORK) – The banning of the 2023 feature film Lyd at the al-Saraya Theater in Jaffa earlier this month is the latest in an ongoing effort by the Israeli government to suppress Palestinian voices. The ban was issued by Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport, Miki Zohar on the grounds that it “slandered Israel and its soldiers”. PEN America warns that this action threatens cultural expression in Israel, undermining the open exchange of ideas and stories that are essential for fostering and maintaining peace, and urges the Israeli government to immediately reverse the ban.
“The right to free expression, to think, create freely, and tell stories, is a fundamental human right, and Israel’s attacks on Palestinian free expression should end. Free expression is critical in times of war when stories play an essential role in countering the risk of dehumanization. We are particularly concerned about the demand by the Israeli government that al-Saraya Theater is now required to submit all future programming for approval by the Ministry of Communications.”
Co-directed by Rami Younis, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and Sarah Ema Friedland, a Jewish-American media artist, Lyd tells the story of the ancient Palestinian city today called Lod, Israel. Lyd incorporates never-before-seen archival footage and spans multiple timelines. The film describes itself as imagining “an alternate reality where Palestine was never occupied and Palestinians of all religions (Muslims, Christians, and Jews) live in a liberated Palestine.” Palestinian-Israeli actress Maisa Abd Elhadi (later placed under house arrest and banned from social media for comments following the October 7, 2023, attacks), voices the perspective of the 5,000-year-old city, casting it as a protagonist in its own story.
In a sign of growing frustration with government censorship, several Israeli media outlets have condemned the banning of Lyd, described by Haaretz as the “Palestinian narrative of the city of Lod and its people.” This follows the banning of the work of other Palestinian artists, including the screening of Palestinian filmmaker Mohamad Bakri’s Jenin, Jenin 2 (2023), which centers on a two-day Israeli military attack on the city of Jenin in the West Bank.
Lyd, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, Harvard Divinity School, and others, premiered at the Amman International Film Festival in August 2023, where it won the Jury Award for Arab Feature-Length Documentary and the FIPRESCI Award from the Film Critics Association. After its initial U.S. screenings in the spring of 2024, the filmmakers have returned for a second round of screenings, primarily at universities along the East Coast.In 2023, Israel appeared for the first time among the top five global jailers of writers in PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index, with all 17 detained individuals being Palestinian writers from Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. While three were already in custody, the remaining 14 were detained after October 7, 2023.