Emad Burnat, the Palestinian director of the Oscar-nominated film, “Five Broken Cameras” was detained at the Los Angeles airport last night because airport officials didn’t believe he was actually in town for the Academy Awards, TMZ reports.
Filmmaker Michael Moore live-tweeted the entire incident, claiming Burnat was held for almost two hires while airport security grilled him about his purpose of visit to the US.
“Emad, his wife & 8-yr old son were placed in a holding area and told they didn’t have the proper invitation on them to attend the Oscars,” Moore tweeted. “Although he produced the Oscar invite nominees receive, that wasn’t good enough & he was threatened with being sent back to Palestine.”
“I called Academy officials who called lawyers. I told Emad to give the officers my phone # and to say my name a couple of times.”
“After 1.5 hrs, they decided to release him & his family & told him he could stay in L.A. for the week & go to the Oscars. Welcome to America.”
“‘It’s nothing I’m not already used to,’ he told me later. ‘When u live under occupation, with no rights, this is a daily occurrence.'”
