A host of Hollywood insiders are backing a new pledge to boycott working with Israeli film institutions and companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
Film Workers for Palestine announced the pledge this morning, citing the signatures of more than 1,300 filmmakers, actors, creatives and other industry professionals including Olivia Colman, Ayo Edebiri, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Emma Seligman, Boots Riley, Adam McKay, Joshua Oppenheimer and others.
“As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers and institutions, we recognize the power of cinema to shape perceptions,” reads the pledge. “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. The world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, and that Israel’s occupation and apartheid against Palestinians are unlawful. Standing for equality, justice and freedom for all is a profound moral duty that none of us can ignore.”
Per Film Workers for Palestine, the pledge was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, which was founded by high-profile directors like Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese to demand that the film industry refuse to distribute work in South Africa.
“It is the responsibility of every independently minded artist to use whatever powers of expression they possess to support the global resistance to overcome this horror,” said Oscar nominated producer Mike Lerner in a statement. “This pledge is an essential non-violent tool to undermine the deadly impunity that Israel and its allies currently enjoy.”
The full list of signatories is published here.
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