ADVERTISEMENT More than 1,300 artists, including Hollywood and international A-listers like Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed and Javier Bardem, have promised not to work with Israeli film companies they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
The artists – actors, directors, screenwriters and producers – have signed a pledge created by Film Makers for Palestine and decry the “unrelenting horror” in Gaza.
Other big names in film to have signed the pledge include Ken Loach, Yórgos Lánthimos, Asif Kapadia, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lily Gladstone, Ayo Edebiri, Brian Cox, Josh O’Connor, Rebecca Hall, Benedict Wong, Gael García Bernal, and Susan Sarandon.
“As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognize the power of cinema to shape perceptions,” the statement 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.”
The statement says that it was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid – which was founded by award-winning filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme in 1987 and led to more than 100 prominent filmmakers refusing to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.
“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,” the pledge continues, adding that signatories urge the industry to “refuse silence, racism, and dehumanisation and to do everything humanly possible to end complicity in their oppression”.
Examples of being complicit in Israeli rights violations include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them”, the statement adds.
The pledge also cited International Court of Justice rulings, leading academics and UN experts that concluded a genocide charge against Israel is plausible.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.
The pledge signed by the creatives also notes that there are “a few Israeli film entities that are not complicit” and the FAQ clarifies that the pledge does not prohibit the filmmakers 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 is the latest show of support from celebrities for Gazans and against their treatment by Israel.
In June, many celebrities added their names to the letter calling on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “end the UK’s complicity” in Gaza.
Elsewhere, more than 350 international actors, directors and producers condemned the Gaza “genocide” in an open letter released ahead of the Cannes Film Festival. They condemned the killing of Fatma Hassona, the 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and protagonist of the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.
Hassouna was killed along with 10 relatives in an Israeli air strike on her family home in northern Gaza, the day after the documentary was announced as part of the ACID Cannes selection.
The signatories – which included Pedro Almodóvar, Ruben Östlund, Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Alfonso Cuarón and David Cronenberg – denounced genocide in Gaza: “We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” read the letter initiated by several pro-Palestinian activist groups and published in French newspaper Libération and US magazine Variety. “We are ashamed of such passivity.”
Last week, a new film titled The Voice of Hind Rajab, 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.
Jonathan Glazer, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Alfonso Cuarón were among the executive producers on the film directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.
The film won the Grand Jury Prize and it has been selected as the Tunisian entry for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Academy Awards.
The Voice of Hind Rajab will be released in European cinemas next year.
