More than 1,200 film professionals, including internationally renowned actors and directors with Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, and Cannes awards, joined a boycott against Israeli film institutions, seeking to reject any collaboration with entities implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.
The artists signed a manifesto expressing their concern about the current situation: “In this urgent moment of crisis, when many of our governments are allowing the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything possible to confront their complicity in this relentless horror.”
The boycott of Israel is inspired by the “Filmmakers United Against Apartheid” movement, founded in 1987 by Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese, which refused to screen films in apartheid South Africa.
Prominent signatories include Spanish figures such as Javier Bardem, Icíar Bollaín, Isabel Coixet, Juan Diego Botto, Alba Flores, Luis Tosar, and Ana Belén.
They are joined by international figures such as Mark Ruffalo, Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, Susan Sarandon, Riz Ahmed, Ava DuVernay, Ayo Edebiri, and Mexican Gael García Bernal, among many other filmmakers, actors, and film industry workers.
The signatories pledged “not to screen films, appear in, or work in any way with Israeli film institutions—including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters, and production companies—that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
Complicity, according to the manifesto, includes “the whitewashing or justification of genocide and apartheid, and/or association with the government that commits them.”
Regarding this commitment, actress Julia Sawalha commented that her decision to sign was in response to the “unacceptable suffering” she witnessed in Gaza and the need to use her voice to “break the silence.”
Likewise, David Farr, a screenwriter and descendant of Holocaust survivors, noted that, as such, he is “distraught and enraged” by the actions of the State of Israel and believes the cultural boycott was significant in South Africa and will be significant this time as well.
This movement joins a growing wave of protests across the global film industry, including open letters and motions from unions such as SAG-AFTRA, Equity UK, and the Norwegian Screen Actors Guild.
[ SOURCE: teleSUR and PRENSA LATINA ]
