Israeli Film Festival as an example of cultural
propaganda
Last year, the Israeli Embassy in Ghana,
alongside numerous sponsors, held a week-long film festival. It was so poorly
attended and widely reviled that this year’s paltry effort is just two screenings, and their sole remaining partner is Silverbird Cinema.
Let us remind ourselves that Israel is
committing a genocide of the Palestinian people. Israel is a settler-colonial,
apartheid state that has killed over 1000 Palestinians since the start of the so-called ceasefire – including 300
children in 300 days. In fact, Israel commits so many grotesque atrocities that it is difficult to record them without feeling physically unwell. Here is a small selection from the past few months: Israeli forces deliberately targets
Palestinian children; Israel is responsible for the sexual torture of Palestinian prisoners and is building a gallows with viewing platform to enforce the new death penalty law that applies only to Palestinians; Israeli leaders are calling for 40 Palestinians to be killed a night;
and Israeli authorities are ‘arming, funding, and granting impunity to violent settlers responsible’ for escalating deadly abuses (Human Rights Watch). Israeli settlers are essentially militias terrorising the West Bank of Palestine through killings, assaults, sexual violence, arson, and more.
This deadly context is an important one within which to understand why the Israeli Film Festival is taking place. Israel
overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda and to distract from its crimes.Meanwhile, Israel’s genocide has included a deliberate obliteration of
Palestinian archeological sites going back
Meanwhile, Israel’s genocide has included a deliberate obliteration of
Palestinian archeological sites going back 4,000 years. Cultural heritage sites including museums, art studios, libraries, archives and cinemas have also been deliberately destroyed.
In fact, Israel’s attacks on Indigenous Palestinian culture are long-running.
During the 1948 Nakba, Zionist militias, andlaterIsrael, plundered and destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinian-owned books.
At last year’s Israeli film festival, empty
seats at Silverbird cinema led to reports of Ghanaian workers in Israeli businesses and homes being instructed to attend in order to give the impression
of popularity. Attending ‘dignitaries’ were sneaked out the back entrance of
the cinema to avoid protestors objecting to how Israel instrumentalises culture
to cover up its grave violations of international law. Ghanian film students
whose films had been handed over to the Israeli embassy by Unimac without their
consent, withdrew from the festival, and named sponsors repudiated the
relationship.
The Israeli ambassador is promoting the film festival to the diplomatic corps in Ghana with a cheery reminder that it is
free to attend. Additional blandishments include a raffle and free popcorn. How
cheaply Israel expects people to set aside their moral compass and ignore
genocide. Perhaps they will be sneaked in via the back door of the cinema too.
The question before us is whether cinema should be allowed to become a shield for impunity. We call on cultural institutions, filmmakers, artists, and audiences to refuse the normalisation of genocide and to demand accountability. No film festival can erase atrocity crimes, and no cinema should host the attempt.
