Email Campaign: Protest the “Israeli Film Days” at Filmbase in Dublin
According to a page on Facebook, Filmbase in Dublin will be hosting a series of “Israeli Film Days” sponsored by the Israeli Embassy. between November 24th to 27th. The IPSC is calling on our supporters to write to Filmbase and protest this move. A model letter, already sent by the IPSC, is below – but it is always better to write your own letters.
Please send to the following Email Addresses: info@filmbase.ie, md@filmbase.ie, clare@filmbase.ie
To whom it concerns –
I am deeply perturbed that Filmbase proposes to host “Israeli Film Days” between 24th-27th of this month.
I would remind you that the Israeli Foreign Affairs ministry has explicitly stated that it “sees no difference between hasbara (propaganda) and culture”. The information on the Facebook page dedicated to the “Film Days” fails to make the slightest reference to Israel’s status as a rogue state, a serial violator of international law and international humanitarian law, and an illegal occupier of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territory. For that reason one can only conclude that these “Israeli film days” will constitute another attempt to whitewash the criminality of the Israeli state by presenting Israeli culture as if it were somehow independent of state propaganda.
Please note that respected Irish filmmakers like Bob Quinn, Joe Comerford, Dearbhla Glynn and Steve Woods, as well as actors like Stephen Rea and Sinéad Cusack, have signed the IPSC’s “pledge to boycott Israel”. Most recently, John Michael McDonagh declined an invitation to be present at the screening of his film The Guard at the Haifa Film Festival, in protest against Israeli politics.
At a time when Irish peace activists have been illegally imprisoned in Israel after their humanitarian ship the MV Saoirse was hi-jacked in international waters by Israeli commandos, hosting these “Israeli Film Days” sends out the worst possible message: that Filmbase is indifferent to its exploitation as a site of propaganda for the state that perpetrates such atrocities. To cancel the event at this point would send the opposite message, and would be perceived worldwide as an honourable gesture of solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people who have called for an international cultural boycott of the Israeli state. Sincerely –
Sincerely –
Dr Raymond Deane
Cultural Boycott Officer
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign