Global filmmakers unite against Israeli apartheid

According to Middle East Eye, over 3,900 film-makers and actors, including Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Asif Kapadia, Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Tilda Swinton, Rooney Mara and Julie Christie signed a pledge committing to not screen films by, or work with, what it termed complicit institutions.

These include festivals, cinema, broadcasters and production companies responsible for “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them”.

The statement, which was published by the group Film Workers for Palestine, said that: “As film-makers, 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.”

Invoking the cultural boycott that contributed to ending apartheid in South Africa, the film-makers said they were answering a call by Palestinian artists urging the international film industry to “do everything humanly possible’ to end "complicity in their oppressions”.