Death of Israeli director Mohammed Bakri, champion of the Palestinian cause

He was a major figure in the Palestinian cause. The actor and director Mohammed Bakri, known for his documentary “Jenin, Jenin”, died this Wednesday in an Israeli hospital, according to a spokesperson for the establishment.

“Mohammed Bakri died this Wednesday in the Galilee Medical Center” in Nahariya, in northern Israel, hospital spokesperson Gal Zaid told AFP. He died of heart and lung problems, according to his family.

Born in the Galilee in 1953 into a Muslim family, Mohammed Bakri had Israeli citizenship. His commitment to the Palestinian cause has brought him into regular confrontations with the Israeli authorities.

A theater and cinema actor, he had appeared in leading Israeli films but had also been directed by the Franco-Greek director Costa-Gavras, the Italians Paolo and Vittorio Taviani and had appeared in the 3rd season of the popular French series “The Office of Legends”. His role as a Palestinian inmate in an Israeli prison in the film “Beyond the Walls” (Uri Barabash, 1984), earned him praise from critics in Israel and around the world.

But his international notoriety came to him with his documentary “Jenin, Jenin”, released in 2002, which denounces alleged war crimes by the Israeli army in 2002 in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising).

Winner of numerous awards

Attacked in court in Israel, his film was banned from broadcast in 2022, with the Israeli Supreme Court calling it “defamatory.” » Winner of numerous awards around the world, the film was presented in cinema libraries in Israel.

Mohammed Bakri is also the author of several documentaries on the situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

He was the father of six children including three actors, including Saleh Bakri, who also had a brilliant acting career. Father and son have appeared together several times.

Arab-Israeli radio A-Shams published a tribute text on its social networks, calling the deceased a “free voice”. “Since his beginnings in the theater, art was not a simple hobby for Mohammed Bakri, but a tool for awareness and confrontation,” says the radio.

“His documentary Jenin, Jenin marked a turning point which shook Israeli power, and ignited the debate which continued all the way to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) and the courts,” adds the text. “The experience left by Mohammed Bakri will remain present, reminding us that art can be an act of resistance,” concludes the tribute.