Palestinians won Israel's highest film honor, stars skipped the award show in protest

(JTA) — The award for best feature film at Israel’s Ophir Awards, the country’s top film honor and its automatic nominee for the foreign film category at the Oscars, went to “Let It Be Morning,” a film about an Arab-Israeli man forced to grapple with his identity as both Palestinian and Israeli.

But most of the Palestinian stars of the film skipped the award ceremony Tuesday night, calling out what they described as appropriation of a Palestinian story.

“In a normal situation, I would feel happiness and recognition for the prize, but to my dismay that’s not possible when there are efforts bein...