Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Meghann Fahy and Natasha Rothwell have joined over 2000 artists and filmmakers in pledging to stop working with Israeli film institutions implicated in genocide against the people of Palestine.
The pledge, posted on FilmWorkersForPalestine.org reads:
“As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognise the power of cinema to shape perceptions. 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 people is a profound moral duty that none of us can ignore. So too, we must speak out now against the harm done to the Palestinian people.
We answer the call of Palestinian filmmakers, who have urged the international film industry to refuse silence, racism, and dehumanisation, as well as to ‘do everything huamnly possible’ to end complicity in their oppression.
Inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid who refused 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 clarifies that examples of complicity include whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them.
On the pledge’s FAQ page, there is further explanation about that the pledge not preventing filmmakers and artists 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. This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity.”
Other signatories include Marvel hero Mark Ruffalo, The Bear star Ayo Edebiri, Sex and the City icon Cynthia Nixon, The White Lotus’ Aimee Lou Wood, Succession star Brian Cox and filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
Oscar-nominated producer/director Mike Lerner who also signed the pledge said in a statement: “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. This pledge is an essential non-violent tool to undermine the deadly impunity that Israel and its allies cuurently enjoy.”
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Amin El Gamal, actor and Chair of SAG-AFTRA’s MENA Committee said: “There is a precedent for this. In the 1980s, SAG voted twice in favour if the cultural boycott of South Africa and urged its members to refuse to perform in South Africa or for South African production companies.”
Screenwriter and director David Farr also shared powerful words: “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.”
Actor and producer Alyssa Milano added, “This is about recognising filmmakers as storytellers, and storytellers of conscience, hold responsibility. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If you care about justice and human dignity, this moment invites reflection: How do our creative choices echo or resist systems of power? What stories are we willing – or unwilling – to tell?”
At the time of writing, over 2,100 artists have signed the pledge. See the full list here.
(Feature Image Credits: Lily Gladstone by Tinsletown/Shutterstock.com; Meghann Fahy by DFree/Shutterstock.com; Natasha Rothwell by Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com; Emma Stone by Fred Duval/Shutterstock.com)
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