Thousands protest Israeli siege of Gaza near Venice Film Festival

Thousands of people protested Saturday against Israel’s siege of Gaza on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival, seeking to move the spotlight from movie drama to real-world trauma.

Organised by left-wing political groups in northeast Italy, the demonstration began in the early evening a few kilometres from the festival where top Hollywood talent from George Clooney and Julia Roberts to Emma Stone have walked the red carpet in recent days.

The protesters, whose numbers AFP reporters estimated to be about three to four thousand, marched slowly to the entrance of the festival in the beachfront Lido district, waving Palestinian flags, as the Hollywood blockbuster “Frankenstein” was due to have its world premiere nearby.

“You are all an audience to genocide” read one sign.

Protesters said the film industry should use its public platform at Venice — the world’s oldest film festival whose movies often go on to Oscar glory — to focus attention on Gaza.

“The entertainment industry has the advantage of being followed a lot, and so they should take a position on Gaza,” Marco Ciotola, a 31-year-old computer scientist from Venice, told AFP at the rally.

“I don’t say that everyone needs to say ‘genocide’, but at least everyone needs to take a position, because this is not a political situation. This is a human situation.”

“We all know what is happening and it’s not possible that it carries on,” said Claudia Poggi, a teacher holding a Palestinian flag as people shouted “Stop the Genocide!” and “Free Palestine”.

The Gaza war was one of the main talking points in the lead-up to the festival due to an open letter denouncing the Israeli government and calling on the festival to speak out against the war more forcefully.

The letter, drafted by a group called Venice4Palestine, has garnered more than 2,000 signatures from film professionals, including “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro, according to organisers.

A similar initiative was organised at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

“The objective of the letter was to bring Gaza and Palestine to the core of the public conversation in Venice,” Venice4Palestine co-founder and director Fabiomassimo Lozzi told AFP.

“We are amazed at the amount of reaction,” he added.

“It was like people in our business were just waiting for someone to raise our voice.”

Boycott

On the same day just blocks away on the red carpet, “Frankenstein” stars Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi posed for the paparazzi and signed autographs.

The Netflix-produced film is one of 21 movies in the main competition vying for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

On the red carpet Friday, Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani held up a sign saying “Stop the Genocide in Gaza.” She told AFP it was “essential that we make our voices heard.”

“I want every person to be able to speak out on this. And raise their voice. And make their voice heard,” she said, calling what was going on in Gaza “an attack on humanity.”

The festival has said it would not disinvite actors who have supported Israeli’s actions in Gaza, as the collective had asked it to do for Israeli actor Gal Gador and Britain’s Gerard Butler — who regardless were not expected to attend the festival.

Venice4Palestine’s Lozzi defended the proposed boycott.

“I believe that it’s justified in the same way I believed about 40 years ago that it was justified boycotting artists who performed in South Africa at the height of the apartheid system,” he said.

The controversy over Gaza is not expected to end soon. Next week will see the premiere of “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, set in Gaza, by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, in the main competition.

Actors Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix, and directors Alfonso Cuaron and Jonathan Glazer, have joined the movie as executive producers, according to film business news outlet Deadline.

It tells the true story of a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in January 2024 by Israeli forces alongside six family members while trying to flee Gaza City.

Israel invaded Gaza nearly two years ago and has killed at least 63,025 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

The United Nations has declared a famine in the territory caused by Israel’s blockade on the territory of nearly two million people.