PRESS RELEASE:CANCEL the ISRAELI FILM FESTIVAL!

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For Immediate Release

Date: 15 September 2025

CANCEL the ISRAELI FILM FESTIVAL!

Ghanaians Unite to Oppose Israeli Film Festival Amid Genocide in Gaza, and in support of a Free Palestine

Nearly 400 individuals and organisations have united to oppose the so-called Israeli Film Festival scheduled to be hosted at Silverbird Cinema at The Accra Mall from tomorrow 16^th to 20^th September 2025. Signatories to a public letter demand that Silverbird withdraw from hosting this Zionist propaganda event and that all sponsors immediately pull out of supporting what they describe as an attempt to whitewash genocide and apartheid.

This campaign is part of an emerging national movement in support of a Free Palestine and global wave of outrage at the continuing genocidal ethnic cleansing, mass slaughter and starvation in Gaza, where, even by Israel’s own admissions, over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed, about 10% of the entire population, through bombing, sniper attacks, and the deliberate withholding of food supplies.

Ghana’s long anti-imperialist traditions and history of solidarity with liberation struggles are being invoked by campaigners, who say that the festival is an insult to the country’s legacy and values.

This principled position is shared by
filmmakers, cultural workers, defenders of democracy, dignity and equality, and advanced by an unprecedented movement of international solidarity with
Palestine; and in opposition to the racist, apartheid and genocidal State of Israel

Prominent Ghanaians Among the
Signatories

The statement has been endorsed by a wide diversity of organisations, individuals, and leading Ghanaian public figures, academics, artists, journalists, workers, students and activists, including:

• Kwesi Pratt Jnr. – Veteran
  journalist and Social Justice commentator
  
• Emile Short – Former Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ)
• Nii Kwate Owoo – Celebrated
  Ghanaian filmmaker
  
• Audrey Gadzekpo – Renowned academic and public intellectual
• Dzodzi Tsikata – Distinguished
  scholar and activist
  
• Yao Graham – Coordinator, Third
  World Network-Africa
  
• Kwame Karikari – Media freedom
  advocate, Wisconsin International University College
  
• Oliver Barker-Vormawor – Democracy Hub leader
• Hardi Yakubu – Youth Leader and
  Coordinator, Africans Rising Movement
  
• Akyaaba Addai-Sebo – Pan-Africanist and human rights campaigner
• Bright Ackwerh – Leading visual
  artist
  
• Chris Atim – historic Ghanaian
  student leader and respected Health Economist
  
• Kwame Mfodwo – Public intellectual
• Akunu Dake – Activist and
  strategist
  
• Dr. Sylvia Bawa – Academic and
  feminist activist
  
• Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo –
  Scholar and gender advocate
  
• Kwasi Adu-Amankwah – Trade unionist
  and civil society leader
  
• Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh – Intellectual
  and celebrated Gender Equality Champion
  
• Wanlov Kubolor – Major artiste and
  music star
  
• Dede Amanor-Wilks – Campaigning Journalist and Economic Historian

These prominent figures join forces with grassroots activists, student networks, professional bodies, artists, and faith-based organisations in calling for an end to complicity in Israel’s crimes against humanity.

Call to Action

Members of the coalition intend to picket the festival and are urging the public to support and to join them in
peaceful protest. Should the sponsors fail to withdraw, campaigners warn that they will initiate boycotts of all companies and institutions complicit in this event, prominent among which are SAF STLAmandi Foundation, Kempinski
Hotel, Rolider, Sienna Services, EON, and, incredibly,
the University of Media, Arts and Communications (UniMac), a publicly-funded university and therefore a state-sector institution in Ghana.

The campaigners insist that providing a platform for Israel’s propaganda is equivalent to endorsing genocide and vow that history will hold accountable those who side with apartheid and occupation.

“We cannot stand by while the genocide of Palestinians is laundered through art and culture. Ghana has always stood on the side of the oppressed – today we must stand with Palestine.” – Cancel Israel Film Festival Campaign Statement

Join the Campaign

The campaign calls on all Ghanaians and international allies to:

• Support the boycott of sponsors and partners of the festival
• Join the pickets at Silverbird
  during the festival dates
  
• Amplify the call for solidarity
  with Palestine through media, social platforms, and community spaces
  

Contacts

For interviews and media enquiries, please contact:

• Spokesperson: Gyekye Tanoh
• Email: bgyekye@hotmail.com
• Phone/WhatsApp: +233244537409

List of Endorsing Groups

1. Ghanaians Against Genocide
2. Justice and Freedom 4 Palestine
3. Legon Palestine Solidarity Activists
4. All-Africa People’s Revolutionary Party
5. Humanists Association of Ghana
6. Economic Fighters League
7. Socialist Students and Workers Solidarity Network
8. Jamaica Affairs Ghana
9. Rastafari Council
10. International Socialists of Ghana
11. African Institute of Strategic Studies (AISS)
12. Democracy Hub
13. Africa Water Justice Network
14. Ghana Water Justice Platform
15. Tax Justice Coalition Ghana
16. Rightify Ghana
17. Socialist Movement of Ghana
18. Palestine Solidarity Committee
19. Kubolor Foundation
20. Venceremos Development Consult
21. Handala Resiste
22. Pan African Heritage Youth Movement
23. Drama Queens
24. Feminist activists (various)
25. LGBT+ Rights Ghana
26. FemInStyle Africa
27. African Continental Unity Party (ACUP)
28. Speak Out Now Socialists
29. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Ghana
30. Red Vests Movement
31. Ubuntu Reading Group
32. Ukombozi Library
33. Free Palestine Movement in South Africa
34. SCONET Pan Afro Media
35. Laborlatory Art Studios (Kumasi)
36. African Youth Improvement Foundation
37. Activista Ghana
38. Socialist Students and Workers Network (University of Ghana)
39. The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG)
40. GCA – Ghana Caribbean Association(and many other collectives and foundations as per the full signatures list)

09 September 2025

NO TO THE ISRAELI FILM FESTIVAL IN ACCRA #FREEPALESTINE #BOYCOTTISRAEL

STATEMENT BY CANCEL ISRAELI FILM FESTIVAL CAMPAIGN

We the under-signed organisations and individuals condemn Silverbird Cinema for hosting an “Israeli Film Festival” on 16–20 September 2025, co-organised with the Zionist state. Any platform for apartheid, genocide, and the mass killing of Palestinian civilians is complicity in crimes against humanity.

Silverbird must understand the legal,
social and political weight of this decision, as the ICC and ICJ processes
expand worldwide. Across Africa, people are proud to stand against Israel’s racist, apartheid regime, and global solidarity with Palestine is stronger than ever.

It is breathtaking hypocrisy that
Silverbird, having just screened the anti-apartheid film Comrade Tambo’s London Recruits on 7 September, now seeks to celebrate the “culture” of today’s worst apartheid state.

We demand Silverbird cancel this festival immediately and pledge never again to platform perpetrators of apartheid and genocide. We also call out the complicity of sponsors—Kempinski Hotel, SAF (STL), Rolider, EON, Sienna Services, UniMac, and others—whose names are now
tied to bloodshed. History will not forget.

UniMac’s involvement is especially
disgraceful. All educational and cultural life in Gaza and Palestine is being systematically targeted and wiped out as part of all-encompassing genocide.That is why Lecturers, Students, Trade Unions in Education and Universities all over are notable among those standing up in Solidarity with Palestine and for comprehensive Boycott of Israel. UniMac is a state university funded by the Ghanaian people. Its support for this festival is a terrible abuse of public trust. We urge Vice Chancellor Prof Eric Opoku-Mensah to reverse this
dishonourable decision and instead honour the values of education, democracy, and cultural freedom.

That is why Lecturers, Students, Trade Unions in Education and Universities all over are notable among those standing up in Solidarity with Palestine and for comprehensive Boycott of Israel. UniMac is a state university funded by the Ghanaian people. Its support for this festival is a terrible abuse of public trust. We urge Vice Chancellor Prof Eric Opoku-Mensah to reverse this
dishonourable decision and instead honour the values of education, democracy, and cultural freedom.

We further demand all sponsors withdraw immediately and distance themselves from this obscenity. To remain is to be marked as collaborators in genocide.

From 16 September, we will picket
Silverbird in our numbers. If they persist, they will face relentless public
resistance. There can be no “business as usual” for enablers of apartheid and genocide.

Cancel this festival. Withdraw your
sponsorship. The people are watching. History will judge.

#FREEPALESTINE #BOYCOTTISRAEL #BDS