Tag: apartheid

Olivia Colman, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo Among 1,300+ Refusing Collaboration with Israeli Film Institutions Complicit in Gaza Genocide

In a historic move, Oscar, BAFTA, Emmy, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, César, Goya, and Peabody Award winners are among more than 1,300 filmmakers who launched a pledge Monday saying they refuse to work with Israeli film institutions “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

Actors Olivia Colman, Aimee Lou Wood, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, and Javier Bardem, and writer-directors Yorgos Lanthimos, Asif Kapadia, Ava DuVernay, Emma Seligman, Boots Riley, Adam McKay, and Joshua Oppenheimer say: “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.”

Industry professionals including producers James Wilson, Robyn Slovo, and Tracey Seaward, say they are responding to a call from Palestinian filmmakers that urged the industry to “refuse silence, racism, and dehumanization, as well as to ‘“do everything humanly possible’” to end complicity in their oppression.”

Noting that “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”, the pledge states in a footnote that examples of complicity include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them.” 

Film Workers for Palestine, who published the pledge (click to see full list of signatories), said on an FAQ page: “Despite operating in Israel’s system of apartheid, and therefore benefiting from it, the vast majority of Israeli film production & distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally-recognized rights of the Palestinian people.”

The mass declaration was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid which was founded by Jonathan Demme and Martin Scorsese in 1987 and led more than 100 prominent filmmakers in refusing to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.

Commenting on her decision to sign, Absolutely Fabulous actress Julia Sawalha said: “Witnessing the annihilation of the Palestinians in Gaza by Israel over the past two years has splintered the depths of me, and the unrelenting silence to their suffering is unconscionable. As an actress and artist, I carry both the right and the duty to use my voice—to shatter the silence by taking action. This pledge is my way of joining a global community that refuses to be intimidated, that refuses to surrender to hopelessness, and that insists on saying loud and clear: the lives of Palestinians matter.”

The current signatories, who include cinematographers, editors and cinema programmers, join a groundswell of protest in the film industry worldwide, including an open letter from members of US actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, a motion by Britain’s performing arts and entertainment union, Equity UK, affirming the rights of arts workers to freedom of speech, and a motion recently passed by the Norwegian Actors Equity Association recommending its members reject work with Israeli arts and cultural institutions as long as the occupation and apartheid policies are in place.

“Showing solidarity with Palestinian filmmakers should not only be on us as individual artists. Our unions—that were built on solidarity—have an ethical and legal obligation to take meaningful action until Israel ends its genocide and apartheid,” said Amin El Gamal, actor and chair of SAG-AFTRA’s National MENA Committee. “There is a precedent for this. In the 1980s, SAG voted twice in favor of the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa and urged its members to refuse to perform in South Africa or for South African production companies.”

For The Night Manager screenwriter David Farr, signing the pledge is personal. He said: “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. The cultural boycott was significant in South Africa. It will be significant this time and in my view should be supported by all artists of conscience.”

Film workers internationally should follow the links above to join the pledge.

pictured: Javier Bardem, Olivia Colman, Mark Ruffalo, Ava DuVerney

Victory for staff as Royal Ballet and Opera pulls Israel production

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  • 182 members of The Royal Ballet and Opera said they “reject future performances in Israel”. They stand in solidarity with performer who protested with Palestinian flag.
  • CEO announces decision to cancel 2026 production in Israel.

The Royal Opera has pulled its planned 2026 production run of Tosca at the Israeli National Opera (INO) in Tel Aviv. The website of the INO has now dropped all reference to the Royal Opera House. 

Artists for Palestine UK has learned that Alex Beard, CEO of the Royal Ballet and Opera told staff on 1st August that “we have made the decision that our new production of Tosca will not be going to Israel”.

The decision follows an open letter signed by 182 staff at the Royal Ballet and Opera (copied in full below), criticising their management’s refusal to speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza that has killed at least 62,000 Palestinians. 

RBO staff, including dancers, singers, musicians, and staff across artistic, creative, technical and administrative departments, say they “reject any current or future performances in Israel” and demand that the organisation “withholds our productions from institutions that legitimise and economically support a state engaged in the mass killing of civilians.”

The cultural workers said,  “As an organisation of global standing, with the power to shape discourse and influence cultural values, we have a responsibility to act ethically.’ They also expressed solidarity with a performer who raised the Palestinian flag in “an act of courage and moral clarity on our very stage”.

Never before have workers at one of Britain’s most elite cultural institutions risen up in such numbers to demand an end to complicity with grave war crimes and for a boycott of Israeli institutions that whitewash or justify them. And never before has the management of such an institution responded with immediate action. 

A spokesperson for  Artists for Palestine UK said, “This is a welcome breakthrough for institutional accountability– and a victory for grassroots organising. Across the cultural sector too many institutions, faced with genocide, have opted for silence or worse. The RBO staff’s open letter is an essential ethical uprising against this refusal to speak out.”

Since the onset of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, British artists and writers, cultural workers and media professionals have mobilised to pressure institutions to cut links of complicity. Some have responded with repression and censorship. Yet a growing number are recognising their ethical and legal obligation to do no harm to the Palestinian struggle for freedom.    

READ THE LETTER  IN FULL :

Open Letter from Members of The Royal Ballet and Opera

“We, the undersigned, write with deep concern and moral conviction in response to recent actions and decisions taken by The Royal Ballet and Opera in the context of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

In recent months, the world has witnessed the systematic destruction of Palestinian lives, homes, and cultural heritage. Tens of thousands have been killed, millions displaced, and essential infrastructure deliberately targeted, in clear violation of international law. Humanitarian organisations, legal scholars, and even the International Court of Justice have raised the alarm, recognising the scale of atrocities committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people. To call what is unfolding anything less than genocide is to ignore the overwhelming weight of evidence and the cries of those living – and dying – under siege.

It is in this climate that our organisation has chosen to actively support the Israeli state and its economy by hiring our production of Turandot to The Israeli Opera. This decision cannot be viewed as neutral. It is a deliberate alignment, materially and symbolically, with a government currently engaged in crimes against humanity. The venue itself, The Israeli Opera, publicly offers free tickets to soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces “in recognition of their work”, as stated on their website. The Royal Ballet and Opera is clearly making a strong political statement by allowing its production and intellectual property to be presented in a space that openly rewards and legitimises the very forces responsible for the daily killings of civilians in Gaza.

We also witnessed, in recent days, an act of courage and moral clarity on our very stage. A performer used their moment in the spotlight – a moment traditionally reserved for personal recognition – to raise the Palestinian flag. In doing so, they reminded us that art cannot and does not exist in a vacuum. Their gesture was not one of self-interest but of solidarity, a call to conscience. We stand firmly with them.

In the same moment, we witnessed Oliver Mears, Director of Opera, attempting to forcibly snatch the flag from the performer, displaying visible anger and aggression in front of the entire audience. This act, far from being a neutral administrative intervention, was itself a loud political statement. It sent a clear message that any visible solidarity with Palestine would be met with hostility, while the organisation remains silent on the ongoing genocide. Such behaviour, particularly from a leader in a position of influence and visibility, demonstrates extremely poor judgement. Oliver Mears does not represent us.

As artists and cultural workers, we know too well the role the arts have historically played during times of crisis. Opera and ballet are not apolitical artforms. They are filled with stories of human resilience, resistance to oppression, and the triumph of justice over tyranny. To now retreat behind a false veil of neutrality is both hypocritical and cowardly.

This is especially evident when we look at our own recent history. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our institution moved swiftly and decisively. We organised Concerts for Ukraine, we played the Ukrainian national anthem before performances, and we publicly displayed the Ukrainian flag as a gesture of solidarity with its people. We understood then that silence was unacceptable. Why is it different now? Why is Palestinian suffering met with silence, while Ukrainian suffering was met with action? The double standard is deafening.

As an organisation of global standing, with the power to shape discourse and influence cultural values, we have a responsibility to act ethically. We cannot simultaneously present ourselves as champions of human dignity and artistic excellence while materially supporting a regime that commits genocide. To do so is to betray our audience, the values this organisation claims to uphold, and the very spirit of the artforms we serve.

We therefore:

  • Stand in solidarity with the performer who bravely displayed the Palestinian flag on our stage.
  • Call for Oliver Mears to be held accountable for his public display of aggression towards a performer exercising their right to express a deeply moral and political truth.
  • Reject any current or future performances in Israel, and commit to withholding our productions from institutions that legitimise and economically support a state engaged in the mass killing of civilians.
  • Call on the Royal Ballet and Opera to publicly acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, to end its silence, and to align its actions with the same moral and humanitarian principles it upheld in the case of Ukraine.

History will remember the choices we make in times of atrocity. We urge our organisation not to be complicit through inaction or false neutrality.”

Signed anonymously by 182 members of The Royal Ballet and Opera – including dancers, singers, musicians, and staff across artistic, creative, technical and administrative departments.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The above open letter is an independent initiative. Artists for Palestine UK had no hand in writing or circulating this letter among RBO staff. We are grateful to Hugo Morris for breaking the story about the letter on classical music website VAN. We are proud to host it on our website.

Reflections on violence, oppression and a just peace

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‘We all deserve liberation, safety, and equality. The only way to get there is by uprooting the sources of the violence.’ Jewish Voice for Peace 

‘I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.’ Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Minister of Defence 

Artists for Palestine UK responds with horror and sadness to the violent loss of life across Palestine/Israel, that continues as we write. We mourn every death. And we redouble our commitment to fighting for justice, respect and dignity for all people. In what follows, we share statements by international organisations that remind us of the context of the events which we are all now witnessing. We hope this will help to illuminate the root cause of the violence so that we may  formulate responses that are grounded in the ethics of genuine care.

Al Haq, Palestine’s largest Human Rights organisation,  said, in coordination with  Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: 

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Leading artists oppose Barbican’s partnership with apartheid Israeli embassy

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More than fifty artists, including poet and writer Benjamin Zephaniah, actor Miriam Margolyes, DJ The Blessed Madonna and Turner Prize co-winning artist Tai Shani have called on London arts venue the Barbican Centre to end its partnership with the embassy of Israel.

The Barbican is due to host the Jerusalem Orchestra East & West this Sunday 5th February, in an event organised “in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in the UK”. 

Writers China Miéville, Rachel Holmes and Pauline Melville are among those saying they “doubt the Barbican would have partnered with the South African embassy during its apartheid era”, citing reports by leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, that designate Israel an apartheid regime.

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Israeli filmmakers call on Locarno Festival to drop ‘complicit’ Israeli film

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Israeli filmmakers and artists including Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi and Turner Prize co-winner Tai Shani have urged Locarno International Film Festival to cancel its Thursday screening of an Israeli film due to concerns over its funding. 

My Neighbor Adolf was funded by the Rabinovich Foundation’s Israel Cinema Project, Israel’s largest film fund. Last week, Artists for Palestine UK revealed that the foundation contractually obligates filmmakers to undertake “that there is not and will not be in the film any presentation, statement or message that calls for … denial of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state [or] marking Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning”.

The group of Israeli filmmakers and artists cited leading human rights organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s leading human rights group B’Tselem who have all reported that Israel, far from being a “democracy”, is an apartheid regime.

The filmmakers and artists added: “this regime of oppression was founded through the violent displacement and dispossession of most of the Indigenous Palestinian population. That the Israeli state, its complicit institutions and influential lobby groups would want us as Jewish Israelis to remain silent on this systematic ethnic cleansing is not surprising. But storytellers accepting such censorial and unethical conditions for their film projects is an undeniable form of complicity in covering up this ongoing Nakba that Palestinians face.”

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Israel’s largest public film fund attaches political strings to its funding

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The Rabinovich Foundation obligates filmmakers to whitewash apartheid and ethnic cleansing

Since launching in 2015, Artists for Palestine UK has advocated for artists and arts organisations to refuse professional engagements with Israel’s complicit cultural sector. We have helped publicise much information in support of arts professionals taking these stands.

We have now obtained a full copy of the standard contract of the Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts’ Israel Cinema Project that filmmakers must sign before receiving funding. Rabinovich’s Cinema Project is Israel’s largest film fund.

We are publishing an excerpt of the contract, which shows that the fund insists that filmmakers pledge not to acknowledge Israel’s apartheid or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians. 

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Leading artists demand accountability for Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalist

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Pedro Almodovar, Susan Sarandon, Tilda Swinton, Mark Ruffalo, Eric Cantona, Miriam Margolyes, Jim Jarmusch, Naomi Klein and Peter Gabriel call for “meaningful measures to ensure accountability for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and all other Palestinian civilians.”

*photo of Shireen Abu Akleh by AFP

More than a hundred artists, including Hollywood stars, acclaimed authors and prominent musicians, have condemned Israel’s killing of esteemed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Actors Susan Sarandon, Tilda Swinton, Mark Ruffalo, Kathryn Hahn and Steve Coogan are among the signatories to an open letter calling for “full accountability for the perpetrators of this crime and everyone involved in authorizing it”. 

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Artists must reject ‘bothsidesism’ – because it serves the powerful and entrenches injustice

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Artists for Palestine UK is troubled that the British Actors Network (BAN) has chosen to host an organisation that is funded by the UK government and currently promoted by education secretary, Gavin Williamson, called ‘Solutions Not Sides’. The event is billed as an educational workshop for actors that aims to promote ‘conflict resolution’ as an approach for understanding the situation in Israel-Palestine. 

A recent report by Human Rights Watch accused Israel of “the crime of apartheid and persecution” against the Palestinian population. We are saddened that BAN, an organisation that is working to challenge abuses of power in theatre and film, does not recognise that it is inappropriate and misleading to apply a conflict resolution model while the very grave crimes of apartheid and persecution – with all the violence and trauma these entail – persist.

When BAN invited expressions of interest from the acting community in a Solutions Not Sides event, we were highly critical because the framing appeared not to centre Palestinian lives.  We were delighted that BAN responded to our criticism on social media by publicly inviting us to submit an alternative event proposal for consideration.  Since sending a proposal for an event for and by artists on anti-racism, internationalism and Israel-Palestine, we have heard nothing.  In a follow up letter to Helen Raw, the person behind BAN, we outlined our concerns.

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Thousands of artists call for an end to complicity with Israeli apartheid

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It is as if a dam has burst. The last few days have seen an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity with Palestinians from artists and cultural organisations around the world.  Half a century ago, there was massive support for a cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa. Now, artists and cultural workers are mobilising on a similar scale against Israel’s system of apartheid, calling variously for boycotts, practical acts of solidarity with Palestinians and, in particular, an end to co-operation with cultural organisations that are complicit with apartheid.

On May 23rd, ‘Against Apartheid’, a letter signed by many leading Palestinian authors and artists, was endorsed by more than 16,000 international artists, writers and actors including Sally Rooney, Deborah Levy, Cornelia Parker, Alejandro Iñárritu, Holly Hunter, Jeremy Irons, Richard Ford, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alia Shawkat, and Tony Kushner. The letter, which referenced the 2021 report by Human Rights Watch which found Israel guilty of ‘crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution’, said:

‘We call on activists, and especially our peers in the arts, to exercise their agency within their institutions and localities to support the Palestinian struggle for decolonization to the best of their ability. Israeli apartheid is sustained by international complicity, it is our collective responsibility to redress this harm’.

May 25th saw more than 500 visual artists each posting a statement with the hashtag #VisualArtsforPalestine. The statement pledged to

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Israel Must Be Held To Account For Ongoing Violence Against Palestinians

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We share with millions our anger at the indiscriminate and pitiless bombing of the Gaza Strip; at the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah; at the armed invasion of the Al-Aqsa compound during the holy month of Ramadan; at the brutal attacks on peaceful protests in the Occupied West Bank, and on Palestinian citizens of Israel in towns within Israel. All this must stop immediately.

The violence the Israeli authorities are meting out is the same violence that has displaced, repressed and fragmented Palestinians since the Nakba of 1948, when over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forcibly removed from their homes. Israel’s policy of forced displacement, and the ongoing police repression that punishes any form of protest or peaceful resistance by Palestinians, has been taking place in many forms for decades, often without it registering in our news media. Continue reading →

Palestinian artists & cultural organisations call on internationals to cancel engagements in Israel

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Palestinian artists and cultural organisations in Gaza and beyond have written an appeal for solidarity from all those who work in the arts internationally. We are proud to publish their letter below.

“We members of the Palestinian cultural and artistic community in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip, across historic Palestine and in exile make this heartfelt appeal to our fellow artists from around the world to cancel all scheduled performances, exhibitions and appearances in Israel, or sponsored by the Israeli government or complicit Israeli institutions, whether in-person or online, for as long as Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid persists. 

In the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Israel’s war crimes and violations of international law are proceeding with unprecedented impunity. Even in fighting the pandemic, Israel is revealing its appalling racism, a fact that should trouble people of conscience everywhere.

Israel has dumped Palestinian laborers suspected of having coronavirus at military checkpoints “with no regard for their health or safety,” as video footage shows. It has destroyed a makeshift Palestinian clinic that was planned to care for coronavirus victims in the occupied Jordan Valley. It has also denied COVID-19 testing to entire communities of Indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel, and irrefutably discriminated in making updated and accurate coronavirus information available in Arabic to the Palestinian community in a timely manner. 

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Leading artists condemn Israeli raids on Palestinian cultural centres & call for sanctions

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Photo: Edward Said National Conservatory of Music by Ahdaf Soueif for PalFest

  • Massive Attack, Steve Coogan, Peter Gabriel, Maxine Peake, Philip Pullman and Benjamin Zephaniah are among 60+ cultural figures to put their names to an open letter condemning attacks on key Palestinian cultural centres.
  • The letter says the attacks are ‘part of a well-documented campaign of harassment and intimidation, arrests, home demolitions and forced evictions’ by the Israeli government. 
  • Brian Eno: ‘These raids … seem designed to break the morale of the Palestinian people, to deny them the last thing that they actually own: their culture ’
  • The artists call for ‘targeted and lawful sanctions’ against Israel.

Signatories to the letter include:

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Judy Joo: Please stand with Palestinians

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* In Gaza 97% of water is currently contaminated by sewage and/or salt due to the ongoing blockade of 1.7 million Palestinians living there (Oxfam)

Judy Joo is a chef, writer and restaurateur. We love the creativity of her work at London’s  Jinjuu — but we hate apartheid, so we’re hoping Joo will turn down the Israeli government-sponsored ‘Tel Aviv Round Tables’ food festival.  More than 70 chefs and food writers in the US are choosing to speak out against Israel’s violation of Palestinian land rights, water rights and basic human rights. Please join them Judy Joo!

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Fans ask Eddie Izzard – “Don’t support Apartheid Israel”

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Eddie Izzard leaflet

Click image to download 2-sided PDF flyer

UK comedian Eddie Izzard is known for his opposition to apartheid South Africa. He played gigs for the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the 1980s. In 2016, as part of a charity fund-raising effort, he ran 27 marathons in 27 days to honour the 27 years Nelson Mandela spent in prison . And yet, despite pleas from fellow artists in the UK and Palestine, he is scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv on March 30, in breach of the Palestinian boycott which challenges Israel’s continuing Apartheid regime.

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