The director of the Venice Film Festival, which is currently underway, has nixed a call to boycott Israeli films because of the nearly 11-month-old war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
The decision comes as more than 300 film industry figures from around the world signed a letter published by Artists for Palestine Italia, urging the festival not to screen two Israeli films.
The signatories claimed that “Why War,” from director Amos Gitai, and Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film, “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”), were created by Israeli production companies “complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians” in Gaza.
“We must not forget the [Oct. 7] massacre that took place which sparked this conflict,” Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera told Deadline.
“What [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is doing in Gaza is a war crime, and so was October 7,” he asserted. “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 The films that were asked to be withdrawn by the 300 filmmakers are not anti-Palestinian films in any way, quite the opposite.”
