Actors, entertainers pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions over Gaza

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Over 1,800 actors, entertainers, and producers, including some Hollywood stars, signed a pledge released on Monday to not work with Israeli film institutions that they see as being complicit in the abuse of Palestinians by Israel.

Some companies have faced calls for boycotts and protests over ties with the Israeli government as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault grows, and images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage.

“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 read.

The pledge said it was not urging anyone to stop working with Israeli individuals but instead “the call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses.”

Israeli film institutions had engaged in “whitewashing or justifying” abuse of Palestinians, it said.

It noted last year’s International Court of Justice opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and assessments by multiple rights experts and scholars that Israel’s military assault on Gaza amounts to genocide.

Signatories included actors Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem, and Cynthia Nixon, among others.

Israel’s government has previously dismissed boycott calls against Israeli institutions as discriminatory. Israel says its actions in Gaza amount to “self-defense” after the October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants in which 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage, Israeli tallies show.

U.S. ally Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of people, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population, and set off a starvation crisis.

Last week, The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year, got a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix were among the film’s executive producers.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in WashingtonEditing by Rod Nickel)