The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement took on New York’s Tribeca Festival on Thursday after the film festival received flak over racist, anti-Palestinian comments that were made at a red carpet event on Saturday.
In an Instagram post, the movement called Tribeca out on its “racist double standards” and “choice to continue programming complicit Israeli films during apartheid Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
BDS said the festival had barred Russian participation in the aftermath of the country’s invasion of Ukraine but failed to maintain the same principles when it came to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and its actions in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Iran and Syria.
In fact, the movement said, three Israeli films were platformed this year. One of the companies involved in these films, United King Films, was highlighted by the UN as “involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
The comments that started the firestorm for Tribeca came from US comedian Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Savetsky whose interaction on the red carpet of Gold’s film went viral for all the wrong reasons.
