Israeli Oscars entry evokes empathy to Palestinians but irks government

The director of Israel’s entry for the 2026 Oscars about a Palestinian boy’s quest to see the sea hopes it will help arouse compassion in his homeland during so much conflict.

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Prospects for lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians have rarely looked so bleak after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, two years of war in Gaza, and surging settler violence in the West Bank.

However, director and writer Shai Carmeli-Pollak has taken heart from the reception to his film The Sea which won Israel’s top film prize so was automatically submitted for the foreign-language Oscar prize to be decided in March.

“I met the audience that came to watch it and it was amazing that people could be emotional and sometimes shed a tear for this story while violence and atrocities happened not far from here,” Mr. Carmeli-Pollak said in an interview last week after a viewing.