Pride Not Pinkwasing: Israel Out of LGBT Film Festival
- by: Mindy Spatt
- recipient: SF LGBT Film Festival
Join Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Susan Stryker, QUIT (Queers for Palestine) and many others to demand an end to pinkwashing at the SF LGBT Film Festival. Despite protests, the Festival continues to accept sponsorship from the Israeli consulate. The consulate's role is part of a broader campaign by the Israeli government to pinkwash its human rights abuses with gay-freindly PR.
Gay filmakers and other cultural leaders are joining the International Academic and Cultural Boycott of Isreal, calling on Festival producer Frameline to put an end to pinkwashing at the Festival. The worldwide boycott calls on academic and cultural institutions not to sponsor or partner with the Isreali government, as Frameline is doing.
"Boycott, divestment, and sanctions are time-honored nonviolent strategies for political and social change," said Waker and others in a letter. QUIT, as part of an ongoing campaign to build support for Palestinian self-determination, has held demonstrations and protests at previous festivals, demanding an end to pinkwashing. Please add your voice!
Dear Board of Directors of Frameline:
As queer artists and writers working for justice, we are asking Frameline to discontinue its financial relationship with the state of Israel. After years of conversation behind the scenes, we feel it is time for Frameline to stop taking money from the Israeli government and to join a growing international movement of artists, academics, filmmakers and writers who support the decades long Palestinian struggle for self-determination and a viable political and economic state.
LGBTQI Palestinians have asked international queers to respect the cultural and academic boycott of Israel called by Palestinian civil society in 2005. Please read their statement. The call of Palestinian civil society makes it clear that any institution sponsored by or partnering with any agency of the Israeli government is a target of boycott by people who support a just peace in the region. Boycott, divestment and sanctions are time-honored nonviolent strategies for political and social change. Queer Palestinian groups and other queer organizations have urged Frameline to take a stand against the injustices suffered by the Palestinians under occupation by Israel.
The Israeli government is specifically targeting the LGBTQI community in a campaign to “rebrand” Israel as a progressive, queer-friendly democracy. We call this a “pinkwashing” of the brutal realities that Palestinians face under an illegal military occupation. In fact, the “pinkwashing” also covers up the fact that LGBTQI Palestinians suffer from injustices of occupation. Despite Israeli marketing tactics, support for the boycott is growing rapidly in the LGBTQI community, especially in San Francisco. Frameline’s continued willingness to use Israeli government money is divisive and counter to the values of freedom that Frameline claims to hold.
We recognize that the struggle for LGBTQI liberation must occur in the context of the liberation of all people, including Palestinians. Working against Israeli apartheid means refusing money or other sponsorship from the Israeli Consulate.
The time has come to move forward, and we would be happy to co-sponsor a public forum/conversation on the issue to help you do so.
Sincerely,
Alice Walker, author
Angela Y. Davis, author, professor
Carla Schick, poet, activist
Dalit Baum, activist, writer
Dunya Alwan, artist, activist
Elle Flanders, filmmaker
Eric Stanley, writer, filmmaker, professor, activist
Erica Marcus, filmmaker
Happy/L.A. Hyder, visual artist, writer
John Greyson, filmmaker
Kim Klausner, filmmaker, archivist
Kim Anno, artist and filmmaker
Louise Rafkin, author
Maher Sabry, filmmaker
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author, filmmaker
Nancy Stoller, professor
Sarah Schulman, author, filmmaker
Sonia DeVries, filmmaker
Susan Stryker, filmmaker, professor
Tommi Avicolli Mecca, author, musician
By signing, you accept Care2's Terms of Service.
You can unsub at any time here.
Having problems signing this? Let us know.