Filmmakers call for boycott of Tel Aviv LGBT festival
More than 130 filmmakers and other film industry professionals have signed a pledge to boycott this spring’s TLVFest, the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
The boycott is to show solidarity with what the publication referred to as “Palestinian members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Those who signed include Cannes Palme d’Or nominee Alain Guiraudie, Tribeca Nelson Mandela Award winner Thomas Allen Harris and screenwriter Sarah Schulman.
The publication quotes the signatories as saying they are “intimately connected to the liberation of all oppressed peoples and communities” and that they commit “not to submit films or otherwise participate in TLVFest or other events partially or fully sponsored by complicit Israeli institutions until Israel complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights.”
TLVFest receives money from the Israeli government and organizations, such as the Culture and Sport Ministry, the Israel Film Council and the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality. Among other sponsors of the 2019 festival were Microsoft and the New Israel Fund.
The 15th edition of TLVFest is set to be held from June 4-13. It began in 2006 and was first held in small halls such as The Third Ear (“Ha’ozen Hashlishit”) record store, before moving to the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, where it now takes place.
This is not the first time activists associated with the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement have called for a boycott of the festival, for what they call “pinkwashing,” meaning presenting the fact that the LGBT community in Israel has fought for and won a certain measure of rights and acceptance here, which they see as an attempt to distract from or cover up the true situation of Palestinians.
In 2017, there was a similar effort and some invited guests canceled their participation. But Israeli-Arab Maysaloun Hamoud, acclaimed director of the film In Between, who identifies as Palestinian, and actress-director Samira Saraya, also an Israeli-Arab, both chose to serve on the jury in spite of the call to boycott.
This year’s pledge was organized by queer Palestinian organizations and PACBI, the academic and cultural arm of BDS, which seeks to get those interested in participating culturally, socially and economically in Israel to boycott the country.
In 2017, TLVFest director Yair Hochner told The Jerusalem Post: “I think they just did a very good job this year, the ‘pinkwashing people,’ as they call themselves. But the most important guests are still coming, the famous ones – and that’s what is important.”
Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) and Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black) were guests in 2016, and partied very hard at TLVFest and Pride Week events. Actress and gay icon Mink Stole attended in 2017.