Champion of the Palestinian cause, director Mohammed Bakri has died at the age of 72

This champion of the Palestinian cause, known for his documentary Jenine, Jeninedied Wednesday in an Israeli hospital at the age of 72 in Nahariya, in northern Israel, the hospital spokesperson told AFP. Mohammed Bakri 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 authorities.

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A theater and film actor, he had played in leading Israeli films but had also been directed by the Franco-Greek director Costa-Gavras, in Hannah K. (1983), by the Italians Paolo and Vittorio Taviani and appeared more recently in the 3rd season of the popular French series The Legends Office .

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A documentary banned in Israel

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 Jenine, Jeninereleased in 2002, which denounces alleged war crimes by the Israeli army in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

Attacked in court in Israel, his film was banned from broadcast in 2022, with the Israeli Supreme Court calling it “defamatory”. Winner of several awards around the world, the film was presented in cinemas in Israel. Mohammed Bakri is also the author of several documentaries on the situation of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

A free voice

He was the father of six children, three of whom were actors, including Saleh Bakri, who also had an acting career. Father and son have appeared together several times. The Arab-Israeli radio A-Shams published a tribute text on its social networks. “Since his beginnings in the theater, art was not a simple hobby for Mohammed Bakri, but a tool for awareness and confrontation”indicates the radio.

“His documentary Jenine, Jenine marked a turning point that shook Israeli power, and ignited the debate that continued all the way to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament, Editor’s note) and to the courts »adds the text, which describes the deceased as a “free voice”.