Despite repression and retaliation, the Gaza genocide has pushed an unprecedented wave of artists across the entertainment industry to back the cultural boycott of Israel.
In recent months, a wave of artists throughout the entertainment industry has begun speaking out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
On September 8, more than 1,200 film workers — including A-list stars like Olivia Colman, Tilda Swinton, and Riz Ahmed — publicly pledged to refuse any work with Israeli film companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” Since September, thousands more filmworkers have signed onto the pledge, with the number of signatories now exceeding 5,000.
“Both the language of this pledge, which echoes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s emphasis on institutional complicity, and its material commitment to reject offers to work with nearly all Israeli film companies, represent a significant shift for a film world dominated by executives who have either remained silent about or vocally supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza for the past two years. This shift is not simply a result of growing concern about the horrific suffering Israel continues to inflict upon the Palestinian people. Rather, it is the result of two years of tireless organizing led by two rank-and-file formations in the film and entertainment industry: Filmworkers for Palestine and Entertainment Labor for Palestine. In the face of repression and retaliation, FWP and EL4P have built a movement in solidarity with Palestine in the arts that they believe will last long after the genocide in Gaza is over. (more...)
As solidarity with Palestine grows, thousands of film workers pledge to end complicity with genocide
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