LONDON: Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar intends to end funding for the country’s national film awards starting in 2026, after a film featuring the story of a Palestinian boy won the best feature film prize.

Zohar, who recently described the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” as a “sabotage” against Israel, said on Wednesday that the Ophir Awards held in Tel Aviv was a “pathetic ceremony” after “The Sea,” a film about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, won the prize.

“There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir awards ceremony. Starting with the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money,” he said on X.

He added: “Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers.”

Israeli rights groups are investigating whether the Culture Ministry has the authority to withdraw funding from the Ophir Awards, which members of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television vote on.

“The Sea,” directed and written by Israeli filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak, is poised to be the country’s entry for the best international film Oscar. Baher Agbariya is a producer of the film and one of the 1.6 million Arab citizens of Israel, representing 20 percent of the population. He thanked the Israel Film Fund for supporting the film.

“The Sea” follows a Palestinian boy whose school trip to Tel Aviv’s beach is blocked at the border, prompting him to embark on a dangerous journey to sneak into Israel. Mohammad Gazawi, 13, who stars as Khaled, won the Ophir for best actor, while co-star Khalifa Natour received the award for best supporting actor.

Assaf Amir, chair of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, said that “the selection of ‘The Sea’ is a powerful and resounding response” to the culture minister’s statement and to the recent boycott calls from the international film community.

Last week, more than 3,000 actors and directors signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions, which they said are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people” in Gaza and the West Bank. Signatories include filmmakers Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Boots Riley and Joshua Oppenheimer, among others.

Workers in the Israeli film industry criticized the boycott as “deeply troubling,” while Paramount, a Hollywood studio, said it “does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”