Filmmakers Boycott LGBT Film Festival In Tel Aviv In ‘Solidarity’ With Palestinians

TEL AVIV (JNS) — At least 100 LGBTQIA+ filmmakers and film artists are among a group of more than 230 people in the film industry who have signed a pledge to boycott TLVFest—an LGBT film festival in Israel—as a show of support with Palestinian members of the LGBTQIA+ community, The Hollywood Reporter said on Monday.

The pledge, organized by Palestinian queer organizations and PACBI, the academic and cultural arm of the BDS movement, says that LGBTQIA+ liberation “is intimately connected to the liberation of all oppressed peoples and communities,” and signatories 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.”

The 15th annual TLVFest, a Tel Aviv government-sponsored festival, is set to take place from June 4 to June 13.

The signatories also claim that TLVFest, in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Culture, is being used as part of “pinkwashing efforts,” using LGBTQIA+ rights “to project a progressive image while denying the rights of all Palestinians, queer and non-queer alike.”

PACBI claims the pledge marks a “new, proactive stand by queer film artists in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and dignity.”