Hollywood stars back boycott as Israel's minister targets film academy

In response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, A-list Hollywood actors and filmmakers have pledged to boycott Israel's state-funded movie industry. Their action comes at a time when Israel's Cultural Minister also is threatening his country's film and television academy.

On the red carpet at the Emmy Awards on Sunday, actor Javier Bardem wore a keffiyeh, a black and white Palestinian scarf.

"Here I am today denouncing the genocide in Gaza," he told Variety. Bardem joined Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and more than 4,000 others who signed the pledge organized by the group Film Workers for Palestine.

This week, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel has denied the charges and called the members of the commission "Hamas proxies."

"I cannot work with somebody that's justify[ing] or support[ing] the genocide. I can't," Bardem said. "The targets are those film companies and institutions that are complicit and are whitewashing or justifying the genocide of Israel and its apartheid regime."

Onstage, at the Emmys while accepting the award for outstanding supporting actress for a comedy, Hannah Einbinder shouted, "Free Palestine!"

Backstage, Einbinder told reporters the boycott is meant to pressure the Israeli government to stop the war.

"It's an issue that's very dear to my heart," she said. "I have friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors right now, to provide care for pregnant women and for school children, to create schools in the refugee camps. It is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel."

Organizers of the pledge say they were inspired by a letter in the 1980s, signed by Hollywood filmmakers such as Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, Susan Seidelman and Martin Scorsese. They refused to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.

Film Workers for Palestine emphasize that their boycott is not aimed at individuals but institutions, such as Israeli film production and distribution companies, even film festivals.

But their stance has drawn backlash from some Jewish leaders and organizations and from Paramount. The movie studio condemned the boycott.

"Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace," Paramount said in a statement.

And some Israeli movie industry groups are pushing back. The nonprofit group Friends of the Israeli Producers Association called the boycott "profoundly misguided."

Assaf Amir, who heads the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, says the boycott is counterproductive.

"We understand that the people are trying to somehow affect the war in Gaza," says Amir. "Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to help stop the war. It might mute our voices. I mean, we have an industry that works and fights and makes critical films. Most of us are right now under a vicious attack, I would say, by the government."

Amir says he and other Israeli filmmakers also have long challenged the very government they sometimes rely on for state funding.

This week, the Israeli Academy gave its prestigious Ophir Award to the anti-war drama The Sea. The story follows a 12-year-old Palestinian boy living under occupation in the West Bank who risks his life to go to the beach in Tel Aviv.

"Obviously it's political," says Amir, "But it's such a human, nice, beautiful, small story about a boy who wants to visit the sea, even though he can't because he's illegal in Israel; he has to go through the blockades."

The Sea was produced by a Palestinian, directed by an Israeli and the actors are Palestinian- Israelis.

This week, the Israeli Academy chose The Sea as its official entry for the upcoming Oscars' international feature race.

But Israel's Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar called the film's depiction of Israeli soldiers "disgraceful." This week, he threatened to pull all the state funding from the Israeli Academy. Zohar also announced he's creating the "State Israeli Oscars."

Amir says Israeli filmmakers are aghast.

"The fact that the minister doesn't like the results of our competition, he doesn't like the film and it doesn't fit his political agenda, doesn't make it right for him to just decide that he's going to take our money and create his own competition," says Amir. "It's absurd."

Amir said he thinks Israel's government doesn't care what Hollywood celebrities have to say and might welcome a boycott as a way of punishing Israeli filmmakers.