Film on Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi banned: 'It is skewed and inflammatory'

The film should have been screened today at the Singapore Palestinian Film Festival. Close control of the authorities on discourses and media dealing with issues related to race and religion. About 15% of the nation's 3.3 million inhabitants are 15 years old and claim to be Muslim.

Singapore (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Singaporean authorities have banned a film festival from showing a documentary on Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager made during her recent arrest, a symbol of resistance to the Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

Justifying the ban, the Singapore Media Information Development Authority (IMDA) st the ban, authorities in the Southeast Asian city state said the film Radiance of Resistance was “skewed” and potentially divisive for Singapore’s multi-ethnic population. According to the Imda, The documentary, which looks at the Palestine-Israeli conflict through the eyes of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi and another young female activist, lacked “counterbalance”. "The skewed narrative of the film is inflammatory and has the potential to cause disharmony among the different races and religions in Singapore,” reads the note.

The film should have been screened today at the Singapore Palestinian Film Festival. In 2017, it was screened at numerous festivals around the world and won the Best Documentary Award at the Respect Human Rights Film Festival in Belfast, but became even more current after Tamimi's arrest last month. The girl was accused last January of aggravated assault against an Israeli soldier and will be tried in a military court.

The Singapore authorities are known to maintain close control over public discourses and media, especially when dealing with issues related to race and religion. Adela Foo, organizer of the festival, has defined the prohibition "understandable".

With a sizable Muslim minority and surrounded by Muslim-majority neighbors with strong sympathy for the Palestinian cause, Singapore maintains friendly diplomatic and military relations with Israel. However, it aligned itself with many other countries opposing the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state, wanted by the US president Donald Trump. About 15% of the nation's 3.3 million inhabitants are 15 years old and claim to be Muslims, as recent government surveys show.

• singapore
• film
• documentary
• activist
• palestinian
• ahed tamimi
• projection
• censorship
• israel
• palestine
• occupation
• resistance