More than 1,800 actors, creators and producers, including some Hollywood stars, have signed a declaration pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions that they consider complicit in Israel's abuses of Palestinians, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
“Inspired by “Filmmakers United Against Apartheid“, who refused to screen their films in South Africa during apartheid, we pledge not to screen films, not to appear in films or not to work in any other way with Israeli film institutions – including festivals, cinemas, television companies and production companies – that are involved in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people“, the statement said. It said it was not calling on anyone to stop working with Israeli individuals, but instead “called on film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel's human rights violations“.
Israeli film institutions have engaged in “covering up or condoning“ abuses against Palestinians, the statement said. It noted the International Court of Justice's ruling last year that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, as well as the assessments by numerous human rights experts and scholars that Israel's war in Gaza constitutes genocide. Signatories include actors Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem and Cynthia Nixon, among others.
The Israeli government has already dismissed calls for a boycott of Israeli institutions as discriminatory. Israel says its actions in Gaza constitute “self-defense” after an October 2023 attack by Palestinian “Hamas” militants on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, forced the entire Gazan population to move from one location to another in the enclave and triggered a famine.
Last week, the film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024 drew a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix were among the executive producers of the film, which also won the fest's Silver Lion award.