Tunisian film director Kaouther Ben Hania has refused to receive an award at a Berlin event, leaving her trophy on stage to protest against the international political cover provided for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

Ben Hania chose not to accept the “Most Valuable Film” prize at the Cinema for Peace gala for her project The Voice of Hind Rajab, stating that the killing of the five-year-old Palestinian girl by the Israeli army was not an exception, but part of a systematic genocide.

“Peace is not a perfume sprayed over violence so power can feel refined, and can feel comfortable,” Ben Hania told the audience. “If we speak about peace, we must speak about justice. Justice means accountability.”

The director stressed that the Israeli military killed Rajab, her family and the two paramedics sent to rescue her, with the complicity of the world’s most powerful governments and institutions.

Refusing to let the industry use her documentary for “image-laundering”, Ben Hania left her award on the podium as a reminder of the structures that enabled the mass civilian killings.

“I refuse to let their deaths become a backdrop for a polite speech about peace,” Ben Hania said. “When peace is pursued as a legal and moral obligation, rooted in accountability for genocide, then I will come back and accept it with joy.”

Ben Hania’s public stand in Berlin comes after more than 80 prominent film professionals, including actors Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Brian Cox, alongside directors Mike Leigh and Adam McKay, signed an open letter criticising the Berlin International Film Festival, which also takes place this month in Germany’s capital.

The signatories, all festival alumni coordinated by the group Film Workers for Palestine, condemned the Berlinale’s “anti-Palestinian racism” and its failure to demand accountability for international law violations. The letter highlighted a stark double standard, contrasting the festival’s institutional silence on Gaza with its vocal solidarity for Ukraine and Iran.