Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Susan Sarandon and Tilda Swinton are among more than 1,300 filmmakers who are refusing to work with Israeli film companies they say are “implicated in genocide” in Gaza.
Screenwriters, producers, actors and directors have signed a pledge created by Film Makers for Palestine in the latest show of celebrities speaking out against the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
They will boycott Israeli film institutions and companies, which they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
Some of the biggest names in film have signed the pledge, Riz Ahmed, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson and Ken Loach also among them.
Writer-directors such as The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos and British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, who made documentaries Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona, and producers such as two-time BAFTA winner James Wilson and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy producer Robyn Slovo have also signed the pledge.
Palme d’Or and BAFTA-winning producer Rebecca O’Brien, who produced I, Daniel Blake with Ken Loach, told Sky News: “For decades, Israeli festivals, broadcasters, and production companies have played their role in masking and justifying Israel’s system of apartheid and its war crimes – some through direct government partnerships.
“I refuse to let my work be used to whitewash a genocide.”
Israel has repeatedly said its actions in Gaza are justified as a means of self-defence and denied they amount to genocide.
After the world’s leading association of genocide scholars, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, declared Israel is committing genocide in Gaza last week, the Israeli foreign ministry said it was based on “Hamas lies” and poor research.
Susan Sarandon, here at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, has made the pledge. Pic: AP
The boycott pledge urges the industry to “refuse silence, racism, and dehumanisation and to do everything humanly possible to end complicity in their oppression”.
The declaration was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, founded by award-winning filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme in 1987, which led to more than 100 prominent filmmakers refusing to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.
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The pledge is just the latest show of support for Gazans and against their treatment by Israel from celebrities.
In May, Sky News exclusively reported a letter signed by more than 300 famous names urging Sir Keir Starmer to “end UK complicity” in Gaza.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Annie Lennox, Gary Lineker and Dua Lipa were among the public figures joining leading doctors, academics, campaign groups and a Holocaust survivor.
Bond villain Javier Bardem has also signed
In June, more celebrities added their names to the letter to try to push the government to act after they said nothing had changed.
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At the time, a UK government spokesman said it “strongly” opposes Israel’s military expansion in Gaza and called on the Israeli government to “cease its offensive and immediately allow for unfettered access to humanitarian aid”.
The spokesman also said the government suspended export licences to Israel last year “for items used in military operations in Gaza” and called for a ceasefire agreement.
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More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Strip since the war began, Hamas-run Gaza health authorities say.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages.
Of the 48 hostages still held in Gaza, 20 are believed to still be alive.
Over the past few weeks, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have been preparing to intensify the war after the government vowed to gain full military control of Gaza to defeat Hamas.
