Tag: genocide

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.”

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Paul Weller, Tilda Swinton: stop the proscription of Palestine Action 

On Sunday, from Glastonbury’s Other Stage, singer-songwriter Nadine Shah read out a passionate statement against the government’s decision to ban Palestine Action.

Today, in an open letter published below, leading artists including musicians Paul Weller, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, Brian Eno and US artist Reggie Watts have joined Shah in calling for the ban to be dropped and for the government to stop supplying arms to Israel. 

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‘A Licence to Kill’: UK government to face High Court over arms to Israel

Award-winning actor Juliet Stevenson has released the short film, ‘A Licence to Kill’, calling on the UK government to stop providing Israel with the weapons it uses to commit what Amnesty International described last week as a “live streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza.

For nearly two years, the government has avoided accountability for its actions. Now, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and leading Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, will present their challenge to government policy at the High Court in a four-day hearing, beginning on 13th May.

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Dozens of ex-Eurovision contestants demand exclusion of Israel from contest

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Britain’s Mae Muller and Bianca Nicholas joined Charlie McGettigan, Salvador Sobral and dozens of former Eurovision contestants in calling on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to ban Israel’s public broadcaster KAN from the popular song contest.

Over 70 previous participants, who include songwriters, lyricists and other creatives from across Europe, accuse KAN of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”.

In a letter published below ahead of the Eurovision finals on May 17, the artists say “by continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes”.

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Tate, Cut Your Ties With Genocidal Israel

As the atrocities mount up, the silence of UK cultural institutions grows more deafening, the double standards ever more glaring.

In March 2022, a fortnight after Russia invaded Ukraine, Tate cut ties with billionaire donors and Tate International Council members, Viktor Vekselberg and Petr Aven. ‘We will not work with or maintain relationships with anyone associated with the Russian government,’ said Tate.

On Palestine, Tate has made no such statement. On the contrary, it has kept up its relationships with donors and organisations associated with the Israeli government. It has remained silent on Israel’s total destruction of Gaza. 

Now, in the lead up to this year’s Turner Prize awards ceremony, more than 60 artists closely associated with Tate (including three out of four of this year’s Turner Prize nominees, two of its judges, and many former prize winners and nominees) have signed an open letter. Supported by a thousand further signatories in the arts, it calls on Tate’s leadership to cut ties with organisations that are deeply complicit with the Israeli state. 

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Hundreds of Artists Condemn the Royal Academy of Arts’ Anti-Palestinian Censorship

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Royal Academicians Jock McFadyen, Rana Begum, Vanessa Jackson, Tim Shaw, David Nash, Helen Sear, David Mach and Goshka Macuga are among hundreds of arts professionals condemning the Royal Academy of Arts’ anti-Palestinian censorship after it removed two artworks from its Young Artists’ Summer Show.

In an open letter published today by Artists for Palestine UK, the signatories, including more than 100 Jewish creatives, decry as “shameful” the Royal Academy’s removal of a photograph of a protestor holding a placard that reads, “Jews Say Stop Genocide on Palestinians. Not In Our Name”. 

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Leading Artists to Keir Starmer: Commit to Stopping Arms Sales to Israel

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Over 100 leading cultural figures in Britain, including Oscar and
BAFTA-winners, have called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to commit to stop
arming Israel if elected Prime Minister on 4 July.

Signatories to the letter include Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed and director
Asif Kapadia, singer Paloma Faith, actors including BAFTA-winning Steve
Coogan, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Paapa Essiedu, Dame Harriet Walter, Joe
Alwyn and Lena Heady.

The call comes amid an escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which
recently saw Israeli strikes on a designated ‘safe area’ in Rafah kill over 50
civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing
arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and
crimes against humanity. Continue reading →

Tilda Swinton among 2000+ artists calling for Gaza ceasefire

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  • They accuse governments of “aiding and abetting” Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza
  • Palestinians face “collective punishment on an unimaginable scale”
  • Governments should “end their military and political support for Israel’s actions”

Renowned actors Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake and Khalid Abdalla are among more than two thousand  people from across the arts who have signed a letter saying that: “Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them.”

The artists, including Robert del Naja and playwrights Tanika Gupta and Abbie Spallen, condemn “every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them”.

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