Hundreds of actors, directors and other film industry professionals have signed a new pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
“As film-makers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognise the power of cinema to shape perceptions” the pledge reads. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”
Signatories include film-makers Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Boots Riley and Joshua Oppenheimer; and actors Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Ayo Edebiri, Riz Ahmed, Josh O’Connor, Cynthia Nixon, Julie Christie, Ilana Glazer, Rebecca Hall, Aimee Lou Wood and Debra Winger. The pledge had 1,200 signers as of Sunday night.
The pledge, shared exclusively with the Guardian, claims to draw inspiration from the cultural boycott that contributed to the end of apartheid in South Africa.
It commits signatories not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with what it considers complicit institutions – including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies. Examples of complicity include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them”.
“We answer the call of Palestinian film-makers, who have urged the international film industry to refuse silence, racism, and dehumanisation, as well as to ‘do everything humanly possible’ to end complicity in their oppression,” the statement reads.
The pledge was published by the group Film Workers for Palestine. Screenwriter David Farr, who is among the signatories, said in a statement: “As the descendant of Holocaust survivors, I am distressed and enraged by the actions of the Israeli state, which has for decades enforced an apartheid system on the Palestinian people whose land they have taken, and which is now perpetuating genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
“In this context I cannot support my work being published or performed in Israel. The cultural boycott was significant in South Africa. It will be significant this time and in my view should be supported by all artists of conscience.”
An FAQ accompanying the pledge addresses how to determine which film entities are implicated, and states: “Israel’s major film festivals (including but not limited to Jerusalem film festival, Haifa international film festival, Docaviv and TLVFest) continue to partner with the Israeli government while it carries out what leading experts have defined as genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“The vast majority of Israeli film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognised rights of the Palestinian people,” it adds.
The pledge notes that there are “a few Israeli film entities that are not complicit” and advises following “guidelines set by Palestinian civil society”.
The film industry workers also clarify in the FAQ that the pledge does not prohibit them from working with Israeli individuals.
“The call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,” the statement reads. “This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity. There are also 2 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and Palestinian civil society has developed context sensitive guidelines for that community.”
The pledge does not explicitly mention the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is the most prominent civil society effort identifying what it considers complicity with Israel. But it is one of the most prominent cultural boycott efforts announced against Israel since the assault on Gaza started, coming nearly one year after more than 1,000 writers announced a similar pledge.
The effort invokes Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, an initiative founded in 1987 by Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese and other prominent film-makers who refused to screen their films in apartheid-era South Africa.
The campaign comes amid a growing number of entertainment industry initiatives to protest Israel’s war in Gaza. Earlier this summer, hundreds of actors and film-makers – including Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Ralph Fiennes and director Guillermo del Toro – signed an open letter condemning what they described as the film industry’s silence over Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza.
Many of the same figures who have signed the new pledge were also among the hundreds of Screen Actors Guild members who, last year, urged union leadership to protect members from being blacklisted over their views on Palestine. More recently, the Norwegian Actors’ Equity Association recommended its members refuse to work with certain Israeli cultural institutions.
Last summer, Variety reported that more than 65 Palestinian film-makers also signed a letter in which they accused Hollywood of “dehumanising” Palestinians on screen over decades.
In that letter, the film-makers called on their international colleagues “to stand against working with production companies that are deeply complicit in dehumanising Palestinians, or whitewashing and justifying Israel’s crimes against us”.
Last week, The Voice of Hind Rajab, a new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year, received a 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice film festival. Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Alfonso Cuarón were among the executive producers on the film.
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