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Venice Film Festival Director Rejects Petition to Boycott Israeli Films, Insists They’re Not ‘Anti-Palestinian in Any Way’
Actor Sveva Alviti, who hosted the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, and director Alberto Barbera react, in Venice, Italy, on August 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Yara Nardi
Alberto Barbera, director of the 81st Venice Film Festival currently taking place, responded to an open letter published last week that called on the iconic film festival not to screen two Israeli films because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
More than 300 film industry figures from around the world signed the open letter which focused its attention on “Why War” from director Amos Gitai and Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”). In the letter, which was published by Artists for Palestine Italia on the opening of the Venice Film Festival, the signatories claimed that the two films were created by Israeli production companies “complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians” in Gaza. The filmmakers, actors, and other film industry members condemned the Venice Film Festival for its “unacceptable” and “immoral” decision to showcase the films, and expressed outrage regarding the festival’s “silence” about “Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
“Al Klavim Veanashim” will screen at the Venice Film Festival later this week in the Orizzonti competition and “Why War” made its world premiere on Saturday out of competition.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Barbera started off by saying that like other major international film festivals, the Venice Film Festival is staying neutral when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war.
“Have you seen any major film festival ‘take a side’ in this conflict?” he asked. “We are a space open to everyone and to people with different political views. We show films that highlight different views on all sorts of issues. I don’t want to take sides and I can’t make such public statements for the festival in my role as festival director.”
Barbera was then asked to comment on those who believe there is a lack of support, particularly in Hollywood, for the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza during the current war that started in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
“I think we’ve seen many Pro-Palestinian demonstrations all over the world, but hardly any for the hostages,” he responded. “We must not forget the [Oct. 7] massacre that took place which sparked this conflict. Of course, I understand filmmakers signing a petition in support of Palestinians and the awful, painful position of the population there, especially the children. It’s hard to even think about it.”
“What [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is doing in Gaza is a war crime, and so was October 7,” he added. “But we wouldn’t ever withdraw a film on ideological grounds. The films that were asked to be withdrawn by the 300 filmmakers are not anti-Palestinian films in any way, quite the opposite.”
Gitai, the director of “Why War,” said on Saturday that his anti-war film did not receive funding from the Israeli government and although it focuses on war, it examines the topic from a general perspective and does not mention “the intoxicated Israeli-Palestinian relationship.”
The 81st Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 28-Sept. 7.
The post Venice Film Festival Director Rejects Petition to Boycott Israeli Films, Insists They’re Not ‘Anti-Palestinian in Any Way’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
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