Hollywood star Natalie Portman on Tuesday added her voice to the many critics of film directors set to attend a French festival next month who pressured an Israeli colleague to drop out of the event.
Portman, who is Jewish and was born in Israel, addressed the issue in an op-ed that Le Monde published on Tuesday, and which she co-authored with several French film industry figures, including French directors Justine Triet and Jacques Audiard.
In it, they criticized the open letter from last week of several directors from Arab countries, who said they would boycott the FID Marseille film festival next week if it is attended by Israeli director Nadav Lapid. He subsequently announced that he would not attend.
Lapid is a longtime critic of Israeli policy who himself has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza.
The letter signed by Portman does not attempt to defend Israel’s actions, which the Arab directors called a “genocide” against Palestinians, and in fact appears to argue that Israel as a country is guilty of “crimes” and that its government has “fascist and colonialist drifts.”
The authors argue instead that Lapid was a “dissident” and should not be boycotted for his country’s actions.
