Hollywood stars boycott Israeli movie groups over Gaza

Over 1,800 actors, entertainers, and producers, including some Hollywood stars, signed a pledge to not work with Israeli movie institutions that they see as being complicit in the alleged abuse of Palestinians by Israel.

Signatories included actors Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Tilda Swinton, Riz Ahmed, Javier Bardem, and Cynthia Nixon, among others.

This comes as a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had incited these acts – accusations that Israel called scandalous.

The U.N. report cites examples of the scale of killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding, adding its voice to rights groups and others who have reached the same conclusion.

The actors pledge and U.N. inquiry come as major European powers have said they could recognise an independent Palestinian state in coming weeks, as thousands around the world from Britain to New Zealand attend marches and protests in support of Palestinians.

Boycotts and protests

Some companies have faced calls for boycotts and protests over ties with the Israeli government as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault grows, and images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage.

“Inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid who refused to screen their films in apartheid South Africa, we pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions – including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies – that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” the pledge read.

The pledge said it was not urging anyone to stop working with Israeli individuals but instead “the call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses.”

Israeli movie institutions had engaged in “whitewashing or justifying” abuse of Palestinians, it said.

Israel’s government has previously dismissed boycott calls against Israeli institutions as discriminatory.

UN inquiry on genocide in Gaza

The calls for boycotts and protests come as the U.N. Commission of Inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials had incited these acts.

To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.

The U.N. commission found that Israel had committed four of them: killing; causing serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

The U.N. commission’s 72-page legal analysis is the strongest U.N. finding to date, but the body is independent and does not officially speak for the United Nations. The U.N. has not yet used the term genocide but is under mounting pressure to do so.

“Genocide is occurring in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, head of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a former International Criminal Court judge.

“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.”

Israel, which accuses the commission of having a political agenda against Israel and diverging from its mandate, declined to cooperate with it.

Israel’s nearly two-year-long war has killed more than 64,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while a global hunger monitor says part of it is suffering from famine.