In progressive left-wing circles in the West, some still debate whether Israel is conducting ethnic cleansing, genocide, or merely occasional war crimes in Gaza. But it's reassuring to know there's at least no argument about who's responsible: the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the "Docaviv" festival.
This isn't a joke - far from it - but rather the logic articulated in a petition signed by nearly 3900 film industry professionals worldwide. Among them are hardly insignificant figures: two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone, "giant" Mark Ruffalo, acclaimed actress Olivia Colman, "The Crown's" Prince Charles Josh O'Connor, and naturally Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem (who recently compared IDF soldiers to Nazis), along with revered directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Jonathan Glazer, Mike Leigh, and Adam McKay ("The Big Short") and Joaquin Phoenix. They've sworn not to collaborate with any Israeli cinema institution or Israeli production due to their "complicity in genocide."
They also pledge to try to prevent the distribution and screening of their films in Israel (though the wording there is vague). We've already seen six or seven condemnatory declarations from cinema leaders since the war began, sometimes with recurring names (the British, Spanish, and Mexicans don't particularly like us). This one is much broader and, crucially, the first to actually call for a boycott - for retaliatory action, for sweeping damage to the local industry here, hoping to bring about change.
How is the responsibility for what's happening in Gaza explained regarding the Jerusalem Film Festival - the same one criticized just two months ago by the Culture Minister for "promoting the Palestinian narrative" because it screened some films critical of Israel? Or "Docaviv" - which has given space to countless documentaries about the injustices of occupation and the Nakba, including the documentary epic "1948: Remember and Forget," which led to enormous government pressure not to screen it?
Well, none of that matters. Any festival or institution on holy ground that receives a shekel from the government is essentially "complicit in genocide." Lucky they didn't express their views on doctors and teachers.
Blame for Gaza children's deaths becomes retroactive
Wait, there's an even stranger claim: "The vast majority of Israeli production and distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas, and other cinema institutions in Israel have never expressed support for the full rights of the Palestinian people." In other words, blame for the deaths of Gaza children is becoming retroactive, and loyalty demands are beginning to resemble Soviet loyalty oaths (the organization that formulated this is called "Cinema Workers for Palestine," already wrapped in Marxist aura by some of the world's most capitalistic people).
The declaration, to add a humanitarian veneer, emphasizes there's no problem with "collaboration with Israeli creators" - only those not involved in any way with any official or public entity in Israel. By this test, even filmmakers like Nadav Lapid and Shlomi Elkabetz are dirty Zionists and disqualified.
The declaration obviously won't save a single Gaza child. From the perspective of Israel boycott supporters, one can understand demands for arms embargos on Israel, comprehensive economic embargos, and even - painful as it may be - arrests of officers and soldiers abroad.
There's also logic in claiming that exclusion from European tournaments and Eurovision might shift something in the positions of part of the Israeli public. But the film industry? It certainly doesn't interest the government, the general public that goes to films like "Free Chol Sled" funded by private money, and it's hard to imagine a single Israeli citizen who believes the Gaza war is being conducted morally suddenly changing their mind because it doesn't look like we'll see Emma Stone receiving an award at the Sultan's Pool alongside Gal Gadot.
Who wants to invest in this headache?
Those who will pay the price, of course, are the creators - almost all from the left side of the scale opposing the war - and subsequently the Israeli public, who will gradually see fewer good Israeli films on screens. Who wants to invest in this headache?
The Culture Minister on one hand encourages distinctly commercial work, and on the right there's a campaign labeling all Israeli cinema as "defamatory," while on the other hand, the leg of international co-productions is being cut off, along with the ability to get platforms at respected festivals, because there's a distinct hate campaign labeling all Israeli cinema as "complicit in genocide."
Neither side really watches Israeli films or cares about the nuances and complexities in this country that led to creating colorful, multi-layered films like "Gett," "One of Us," "Beaufort," "Zero Motivation," and "Waltz with Bashir." The main thing is labeling local cinema as invalid, toxic, and quietly encouraging all active creators here in Israel to withdraw - to exile abroad or to television.
This obviously isn't the biggest tragedy that occurred in the region this week, not even the tenth. But it teaches about the narrowing boundaries of discourse and imagination. The declaration's signatories compare themselves to a group of directors who boycotted South Africa in the 1980s. With all due respect to filmmakers' endless egos, even if we accept this lazy, worn analogy, one can assume Mandela wasn't freed from prison due to a shortage of Scorsese films in Johannesburg.
Beyond ego and what's called in English "virtue signaling," there are still several additional things this declaration teaches that should concern us. No, "antisemitism" doesn't stick: a large portion of the signatories are Jewish, and it's worth remembering that the film industry is among the most Jewish in the world, both in Hollywood and in Europe.
The claim of "naive" and "brainwashed" is also lazy. It would be a huge mistake to assume that mature, serious people, some highly educated, signed such a radical declaration - which once would have been accepted only on the fringes of the Western left as an option - because they saw two news reports on Al Jazeera or because a friend told them "come sign."
Anti-Zionism is obviously part of the story, and it's consistent among some signatories (Sarandon, Bardem, director Ken Loach), but it's spreading at an alarming rate into Hollywood's mainstream (Stone, for example, never made a political declaration that wasn't at the heart of the Democratic Party), bringing people - even those who visited here once - to see contemporary Israel as an abhorrent place to be fought on all fronts.
And what mainly remains after stripping everything away is despair. A filmmaker sits in Hollywood or France, with an ego, believing they must "do something" or declare something about the war. One can dismiss this, but it's human nature and the profession (we Israelis are also disappointed to discover that Jewish stars like Seth Rogen don't speak in our favor, or melt when someone like Seinfeld does). But the war continues, and there are no answers, no change.
Benjamin TobiasPhoto: Oz MualemSo what do they do? They lash out. At whoever they can. The Israeli film industry will pay a price, and no one here or there will particularly care, but the main thing is that "we did something," the petition signers tell themselves. When you cut down trees, chips fly.
Ironically, this is also the line of thinking of quite a few Israelis in recent years when confronted with the indisputable fact that the price of this war is paid largely by innocents, mainly children, regardless of how we spin it. There are explanations, there are justifications, but that's the reality. The despair and "no choice" are evident everywhere, whether on the red carpet in Venice or in a parliament chat on Friday in Holon. This must be changed.