LGBTQ filmmakers boycott Tel Aviv film fest

More than 130 queer filmmakers and film artists from around the globe are pledging to boycott TLVFest, the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.

Palestinian and Arab LGBTQ activists have called on artists to not participate in the annual festival scheduled in early June.

“As filmmakers, film artists and production companies committed to LGBTQIA+ liberation, we understand that our liberation is intimately connected to the liberation of all oppressed peoples and communities,” the pledge states.

#QueerCinemaForPalestine is all over the news!

130 queer filmmakers pledge not to participate in Israeli gov-sponsored TLVFest. They stand against Israel's pinkwashing agenda, using LGBTQIA+ rights to cover up grave violations of Palestinian human rights. https://t.co/xFUau491FZ pic.twitter.com/oASoFtUYcn
— PACBI (@PACBI) March 6, 2020

Critics say that the festival, which is partnered with Israel’s culture ministry, serves Israel’s pinkwashing campaign.

Pinkwashing is the public relations strategy that deploys Israel’s supposed enlightenment toward LGBTQ issues to deflect criticism from its human rights abuses and appeal particularly to Western liberal audiences.

It often involves gross exaggerations of Israel’s progressive policies, accompanied by outright lies about Palestinians.

TLVFest is partnered with Creative Community for Peace, a thinly veiled front group for the far-right Israel lobby organization StandWithUs.

Award winning director Minji Ma on why she won't participate in TLVFest, the Israeli gov-sponsored LGBT film festival, in support of Palestinian rights.

"Israel is burying its head in the sand, so I couldn’t just wait and see." #QueerCinemaforPalestine https://t.co/xFUau491FZ pic.twitter.com/HRLfBuilz1
— PACBI (@PACBI) March 9, 2020

Award-winning filmmakers, including Charlotte Prodger, Alain Guiraudie, Minji Ma and Harjant Gill have signed the boycott pledge.

Upholding rights

Yair Hochner, the founder and artistic director of TLVFest, has said the filmmakers who have signed the pledge “think they are helping the Palestinians. However, they are wrong.”

He added that “Harming our festival and the filmmakers who do participate in it would instead support the silencing of dissident voices in Israel.”

Palestinian rights campaigners have long urged TLVFest to drop its partnership with the Israeli cultural ministry.

In 2018, several LGBTQ filmmakers pulled out of TLVFest.

The year before, TLVFest was hit with a wave of cancellations by filmmakers who heeded the boycott call.

Canadian filmmaker John Greyson, who has signed the pledge, appealed to fellow artists through a short visual piece:

Award winning director John Greyson explains why he pledged not to participate in Israeli gov-sponsored TLVFest.

"Queer and other Palestinians are asking us to take a stand, just as was done in against apartheid in South Africa." #QueerCinemaForPalestine https://t.co/cfE1KHCiiM
— PACBI (@PACBI) March 5, 2020

“In the future, I do hope that I’ll be able to screen my films at TLVFest, when they stop pinkwashing and publicly uphold Palestinian rights under international law, as a necessary step towards achieving a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” Greyson says.

“Until then, I hope you’ll also sign this pledge.”