Organizations and professionals within the U.S. film industry would be violating federal and state antidiscrimination laws if they follow through with a boycott of the Israeli film industry, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law stated on Wednesday.
In a letter sent to top studios, distributors, platforms, talent agencies and film festivals, the Brandeis Center warns that participation in the “Hollywood Blacklist,” a boycott circulated in September by Film Workers for Palestine that calls for industry professionals to blacklist Israeli artists, companies and institutions, would “have a devastating impact—marginalizing Israeli and Jewish storytellers and silencing their diverse voices and perspectives.”
The center also explained that such discrimination against Jews and Israelis is a violation of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1964, as well as state laws in California and New York.
“The Hollywood Blacklist of Jewish Israelis is illegal in more ways than one,” the letter states.
More than 5,000 members of the international film industry have signed the open letter, stating they will not work with Israeli film institutions that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” according to the Film Workers for Palestine’s website.
“Boycotting Jews isn’t an original idea, or, thankfully, a legal one in the United States of America,” Rory Lancman, senior counsel at the Brandeis Center, stated. “As we say in our letter, we much prefer to see their work on the screen, and not them in court.”
A counterletter, spearheaded by Creative Community for Peace and calling for signers of the original boycott to rethink their stance, has been signed by approximately 1,200 film industry professionals, according to the Brandeis Center.
