Tag: war crimes

Leading lights demand Almeida Theatre cut ties with Bloomberg over war crimes

Jack Reynor, Billy Howle, Zoe Telford and Caryl Churchill are among leading lights of theatre and screen demanding Islington’s Almeida Theatre end its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies over its “links to human rights violations and war crimes” and in particular, its “direct and ongoing support for illegal settlements” in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

In the letter published below, 435 theatre and arts professionals, forty of whom have current or historic links to the theatre – including former associate director Ben Harrison, actors Tamara Lawrance, MyAnna Buring and Hayley Carmichael, composer Jocelyn Pook and writer David Farr – say the issue was raised privately with the theatre months ago, but that the theatre failed to act on the information it was given.

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Top Artists Join Campaign to End UK Arms Sales to Israel

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Award winning British artists – Juliet Stevenson, Khalid Abdalla, David Calder, Charlotte Church and Maxine Peake – have released a series of short films, ‘Stop Arming Israel’, calling for “an end to Britain’s role in killing Palestinians”, ahead of the UK elections.

The five hard-hitting films are the result of a collaboration between Artists for Palestine UK, Global Action Legal Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. GLAN and Al-Haq have launched a legal action against the UK government to suspend weapons sales to Israel.

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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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Mike Leigh, Leila Sansour, Pratibha Parmar, Ken Loach and others say UK cinemas should boycott Israeli film festival Seret

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In our letter published in the Guardian yesterday and copied below, 20 British filmmakers and writers including Mike Leigh, Leila Sansour, Ken Loach and Prahitbha Parmar criticise the hosting of an Israeli government sponsored film festival in the UK. 

The letter cites the findings of the recent UN report on Israel’s violence against Palestinians in Gaza.  It compares celebrity and business protests against Brunei over its new anti-LGBT law, with those against Israel over its violence against the Palestinians.

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