KEN LOACH URGES BOYCOTT OF EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL
Award-winning film director Ken Loach calls for boycott of the Edinburgh Film Festival over Israeli money
Ken Loach issued the following statement this morning:
“I’m sure many film makers will be as horrified as I am to learn that the Edinburgh International Film Festival is accepting money from Israel . The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable. With regret, I must urge all who might consider visiting the festival to show their support for the Palestinian nation, and stay away.”
This follows a call by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign for a boycott following the revelations about Israeli money.
Ken Loach joins fellow Respect Party member George Galloway MP in supporting a boycott. George Galloway issued the following statement also this morning.
“If the film festival wants to continue to enjoy an outstanding international reputation it will not hesitate to return this tainted money to the Israeli embassy. I find it astonishing that a spokesperson for the festival accused those of us who want this money returned of ‘ghettoising’ film-makers. If there’s a prize for satire at the festival, contestants need to know that the result is a foregone conclusion. It is Israel that is herding the Palestinian people into the ghetto and, in the case of Gaza earlier this year, bombing to smithereens those it had taken the precaution to lock in.
“If the festival does not do the right thing – morally, and commercially – then no self respecting artist or director should take part. Sense prevailed three years ago over this issue. I’m sure it will again.”
that’s some going - but it’s a great coincidence that Ken Loach is available to speak out on this.
Good to hear the SPSC being on the ball.
Comment by faceless — 14 May, 2009 @ 8:11 pm
‘king unbelievable. Are you so blind that you can’t see the logic of where this stupid tactic is dragging you. Already you move frmo a boycott of Israel, to a boycott of people who don’t boycott Israel. I suppose you’ll all be happy when you get to the final solution.
None of it helps the palestinians or the cause of peace one jot.
Comment by nt9n — 15 May, 2009 @ 9:41 am
Waiiiitt a minute what exactly is this mysterious ‘Israeli Money’. Who supplied it? How much is the amount in question. Where are the fecking details or are people just supposed to get so wound up at the very idea of some money for a boring film festival coming from an Israeli source?
Which leads us to the question, if some film council, arts group or other quango chucks a few grand at the EFF does this mean that said group tacitly supports bomibng Palestinian children by the very virtue of being Israeli? If you think they do then you are a fool frankly.
Comment by Anonymous — 15 May, 2009 @ 11:25 am
#3 Perhaps this would help:
DEAR SUPPORTER OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS
The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has again accepted funding from the Israeli Embassy, while people in Gaza are still living in the rubble of their homes, and Gaza victims of Israel ’s white phosphorous attacks are still in critical care.
In 2006, a public outcry forced the EIFF to return Israel ’s tainted money. On that occasion the EIFF stated publicly that its action was due to popular outrage at the massacres Israel had recently committed in Lebanon :
“This funding was secured some three months ago, well before the commencement of current hostilities in Lebanon . Of course we acknowledge that the situation has altered dramatically since then, and with this in mind, took the decision early yesterday to decline any funding from the Israelis.”
The Director’s decision to again associate the Israeli Government with the EIFF comes after the massacres of over 1400 people in Gaza , during which:
· The United Nations said the IDF intentionally burned its food stores in Gaza
· Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the army of illegally using phosphorous bombs in densely populated areas
· The International Red Cross described the injured being denied medical attention and strikes on medical crews
· Israeli journalist Amira Hass wrote of the killing of people flying white flags and the annihilation of entire families
· British MP Gerald Kaufmann described Israel’s mass killing as ‘Nazi’
· The UN General Assembly President called for a world-wide boycott of ‘apartheid Israel ’
Only a few days ago, on May 1st, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Palestine condemned ‘the recent wave of eviction orders and demolitions of Palestinian houses’. Israel ’s ongoing crimes include the murder of unarmed protesters, the burning of olive groves and other farmland, the continued imposition of a brutal siege of Gaza , and the extension of its apartheid Wall, declared illegal by the International Court . It is unbearable that EIFF should accept sponsorship from such a Government.
Faced with such awful crimes, Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai had no choice:
“I do not believe that a State that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural week. That is, it is anti-cultural; it is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way. It manifests support for Israel .”
We hope the EIFF will follow the example the Bloomsbury Theatre which recently cancelled a performance involving Israeli military personnel. Failing this, we will:
· organise pickets at EIFF events
· publicise the Festival’s links with the Israeli Embassy locally and internationally
· call for a boycott of the 2009 events to protest Israel ’s massacres of the Palestinian people
Please protest to the EIFF personally, stating that
· you view the link with the Israeli Embassy as collusion in Israel ’s recent and ongoing crimes
· such a link brings discredit on the Festival, the City and Scotland
· you will not participate in any of the events unless the Israeli Government money is returned
· you support the planned protest and calls for a boycott if the link with the Israeli Embassy is maintained
· you are not taking issue with any films being shown; it is opposition to accepting funding from a murderous regime
SPSC would appreciate being cc’d on any correspondence - please send to secretary@scottishpsc.org.uk
CONTACT THE EIFF:
Edinburgh International Film Festival
88 Lothian Road
Edinburgh EH3 9BZ
Tel: 00 44 (0)131 228 4051
Fax: 00 44 (0)131 229 5501
info@edfilmfest.org.uk
Join Scottish PSC- we are all volunteers with no paid staff - or make a financial donation to help us continue campaigning work:
Send a cheque to:
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
c/o Peace & Justice Centre
Princes Street
Edinburgh EH2 4BJ
Comment by rachel trickett — 15 May, 2009 @ 11:37 am
perhaps you will be using placrds such as these http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_ph.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005175&MediaId=5229
Comment by nt9n — 15 May, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
or these http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_ph.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005175&MediaId=619
Comment by nt9n — 15 May, 2009 @ 12:22 pm
#2, 5, 6:
It is not anti-semitic to oppose Israel’s illegal and brutal behaviour in the Occupied Territories, and your feeble attempt to smear the pro-Palestinian movement is a disgrace. The tactic of falsely equating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is used by those who want to shut up principled opposition. Many Jews also oppose Israel’s actions and the left opposes racism of every kind.
Comment by little black sister — 15 May, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
@ rachel trickett
Thanks for the link, my google-fu was weak.
Still can’t say that I find such methods totally convincing. Or convincing at all. If the Israelis cultural attaches (or whoever) want to promote Israeli cinema, then this is a good thing surely?
Did anyone see Waltz with Bashir? It’s a really great film, and does a lot more to explain the situation on the ground, than a bunch of hysterical screeching from the usual crowd. Treating the entire populace of the country as a monolithic entity is idiotic and reductionist.
Shit is complicated ‘yo
Comment by Anonymous — 15 May, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
I am leery of boycotts but have been persuaded that they might work. And, having carefully considered the competing merits of the case, I will institute an immediate boycott… of Ken Loach’s films. It’s too late to withdraw my viewing of his previous work, but I shall be avoiding any films with his name from here on. As well, seeing as many supporters of Palestinian statehood have come out in favour of boycotts, I may have to widen mine as well.
Comment by Chris — 15 May, 2009 @ 12:54 pm
Good for Ken Loach!
More details: http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Film-festival-hands-back-Israeli.5278828.jp
This article clearly explains that the funding was from the Israeli embassy.
Comment by Nadine — 19 May, 2009 @ 8:57 pm
Ken Loach & Scottish PSC oppose all racism. No exceptions.
Thursday, 21 May 2009 11:42
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign Statement
Thursday 21 May, 2009
Ken Loach and the Edinburgh International Film Festival are to be congratulated for distancing the EIFF publicly from the unwelcome embrace of the State of Israel, a state now widely understood to be committing grave crimes against the Palestinian people. Many who would have stayed away will now feel comfortable buying tickets for showings during this important cultural event.
The EIFF joins the cultural and academic boycott of the Israeli State just as this movement gathers momentum, a result of widespread disgust at Israel’s white phosphorus and cluster bomb massacres of civilians, and frustration at UK Government complicity. We see rising public support fuelled by popular revulsion at Israel’s burning of the UN’s Gaza food stocks. We note the increasingly open racist rhetoric from Israeli Ministers, who lack Ben Gurion’s skills in masking ethnic cleansing in the language of ‘freedom’ and ‘socialism’.
We can now see the distinct possibility of repeating the success of the anti-apartheid movement that became strong enough to force our governments to end their support for the brutal regime in South Africa.
Fact 1: Israel massacred many hundreds of people, men, women and children, in Gaza over the New Year.
Fact 2: Israeli bulldozers are still at work demolishing Palestinian homes, and Jewish-only settlements are still being built on land cleared of Arabs for that purpose.
Fact 3: A state is not the same thing as a population; politics is not biology.
Fact 4: Boycott of South Africa enabled many decent people to play an auxiliary role in toppling apartheid there.
If anyone denies one of the four statements above, little can be done for them. The problem may lie in their not knowing the meaning of words, like ‘massacre’, ‘bulldozer’, ‘Jewish-only’, or ‘state’. With a very small number of people, however, it lies in their blatant support for the spectrum of Israeli crimes. (This is the case with the demented Melanie Philips, who seems to deny statements 1 – 3 above, and probably Newton’s First Law as well.)
Huge numbers of people wrote to the Edinburgh International Film Festival to say that they found it unbearable, while Israel continues to starve and imprison the people of Gaza, to support a cultural event that listed the State of Israel among its official supporters. Ken Loach was only the most high-profile member of the film and wider cultural community who could not bring themselves to be publicly associated with the state that has visited state terrorism on the Palestinian people for so long.
Ken Loach stands accused of ‘bullying’ by the pro-war, pro-Israel Spectator’s Alex Massie, for taking a stand for Palestinian human rights. It is easy to dismiss such obvious smears of an outstanding film-maker by a shameless defender of Israeli aggression and racism.
More interestingly, the woman who made the film to be shown at the EIFF, towards which we need take no position, has accused Ken Loach of ‘racism’ in today’s Scotsman. Those familiar with Ken Loach’s films see a body of work that challenges all types of oppression and celebrates the human struggle for freedom. The grounds on which Ms. Tali Shalom-Ezer levels the accusation is that, “Generalising all citizens of Israel as warmongers and racists is racism and outrageous…”. That would be racist, if it were true. It is the opposite of the truth. Israel is a violent, aggressive apartheid state; all citizens of Israel are not ‘warmongers and racists’. Scottish PSC, working in a country that is committing terrible crimes against the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as helping to arm the murderous Israeli Army, salutes those Israelis who actively oppose the crimes of their government.
Ken Loach was widely reported in the press as stating a widely held view that, “Massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable”. He said clearly that, “it was a boycott against the state of Israel”. Ken Loach and the Scottish PSC, are committed to opposing racism in all its forms, and have long opposed the efforts of Israeli State and pro-Israel bodies to implicate all Israelis, and even all Jews worldwide, as supporters of Israeli crimes, i.e. as ‘warmongers and racists’.
We do not recognise collective guilt – we are only responsible for our own individual actions, or inactions. Most of us can further distinguish (Fact 3 above) between a state and the citizens of that state. We hope that Iraqis and Afghans can distinguish between the invasions and massacres perpetrated by the British State on the one hand, and the citizens of that state, most of whom oppose those crimes, on the other. Just as those of us who have visited Palestine many times know that the great bulk of Palestinians are able to make such a distinction with regard to Jews and the Zionist State.
Ms Shalom-Ezer is also reported as saying that, “as members of the peace camp we are personally hurt by it”. Did Ms. Shalom-Ezer oppose the invasion and massacres in Gaza? Does she oppose Israel’s racist policies towards Palestinians? Where is this ‘peace camp’? Who is in it? Did it oppose the massacres in Gaza? Does she mean the so-called ‘peace camp’ that wants peace while bulldozers roar and ethnic cleansing accelerates? Does she recognise the rights of ethnically cleansed refugees?
Would Ms Shalom-Ezer, or any of her supporters, like to debate these issues during the Film Festival? We at Scottish PSC are more than happy to publicly defend the need for universal human rights as a basis for solving the crisis in Israel/Palestine, and the need to repeat the South African experience of boycott, divestment and sanctions with apartheid Israel.
Comment by reds_care — 21 May, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
I’m from germany, and i director on TV. Sorry about my english. in the beginning of the holocaust, there were boycots of jewish thinks. A boycott as a weapon in this case is, i think , very stupid. Then can boycot a lot countries. (And most of the 53 islamic countrys. What happend to all the minoritys there the last 150 years???) . The conflict in Pelestine is tragic. But culture is helping. Read about Daniel Barenboim and his west eastern orchstra. We need dialogue. No boycots…
Comment by Carlskwell — 26 May, 2009 @ 4:13 pm