A pro-Israel legal advocacy group in the United Kingdom has warned the country’s entertainment industry that boycotts of Israel are a breach of British law and could have financial ramifications.
Variety reported that UK Lawyers for Israel sent a letter to the country’s branches of Netflix, Disney, Amazon Studios, Apple, Warner Bros. Discovery and other international studios, along with domestic outlets such as the BBC and ITV, major agencies and relevant unions.
The letter warned that calls for a boycott of the Jewish state, backed by recognizable Hollywood names such as Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone, violated the UK Equality Act.
“If the U.K. television and film industry colludes with acts contrary to this legislation, organizations are themselves likely to be in breach,” the letter states. “It also creates a dangerous precedent: one that condones the exclusion of individuals and/or organizations based solely on their nationality, ethnicity and/or religion.”
UK Lawyers for Israel said that boycott carveouts for groups such as Israeli Arabs established by the organizing Film Workers for Palestine “strongly indicates” that the boycott “is based not only on nationality, but also on religion and ethnicity.”
UK Lawyers for Israel also warned that due to the industry norm, where many actors and producers hold contracts with production companies and agents, those entities can also be held liable for violations of the Equality Act should their staff take part in the boycott.
Deliberate breaches of the act are “highly likely to be a litigation risk and a notifiable event” for insurance purposes, potentially invalidating them, the letter asserts.
Compliance with the act is also generally necessary for state funding, UK Lawyers for Israel noted.
Many film industry professionals have pledged to fulfill Film Workers for Palestine’s demand “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 Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent out a similar letter to U.S. companies earlier this month, noting that any such Hollywood boycott breaks U.S. federal law and potentially state laws as well.
“To be clear: these laws apply to you, and not only to those direct signatories who would unlawfully aid, abet and incite you to apply the Hollywood Blacklist,” it wrote.
