London, United Kingdom — Over 1,500 actors and film industry workers including Olivia Colman and Mark Ruffalo vowed not to work with Israeli cinema bodies they said were “implicated in genocide” in Gaza, in an open letter published Monday.
“We pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions — including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies — that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” read the letter published in The Guardian newspaper.
The signatories included British actors Aimee Lou Wood, Josh O’Connor and Tilda Swinton, American actors Ayo Edebiri and Cynthia Nixon, and filmmakers Ken Loach and Yorgos Lanthimos.
The letter, organized by the group Film Workers for Palestine, said it was inspired by notable filmmakers who had refused to screen their work in apartheid South Africa as part of a wider cultural boycott.
“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 letter read.
The institutions to be boycotted would include any involved in “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid”, or those which partnered with the Israeli government.
The group behind the letter cited, for example, the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Docaviv documentary film festival, which “continue to partner with the Israeli government.”
“The vast majority of Israeli film production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally recognized rights of the Palestinian people,” according to a FAQ document accompanying the letter.
The pledge did not target Israeli individuals, and the FAQ said the “refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity”.
Several open letters signed by prominent figures from the worlds of cinema, music and literature have been published as pressure grows on the Israeli government to end its devastating, nearly two-year war in Gaza and urgently address the humanitarian crisis.
An Italian filmmakers’ collective, Venice4Palestine, urged the city’s film festival in August to take a stand against Israel’s actions, with their letter gathering 2,000 signatures, including from directors Guillermo del Toro and Ken Loach.
Israel’s relentless offensive has killed at least 64,522 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
