“As filmmakers, actors, film industry workers, and institutions, we recognize the power of cinema to shape perceptions,” the open letter says. “In this urgent moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can to address complicity in that unrelenting horror.”

Film Workers for Palestine — a group of film professionals based in various countries formed in early 2024 — said their pledge was inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, who refused to screen their films in apartheid South Africa.

“We pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions — including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies — that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” the letter says.

The group has not called for a boycott on all Israeli film institutions. It claims on its website that Israel’s public and private broadcasters “have decades-old and ongoing involvement in whitewashing, denying and justifying Israel’s war crimes” and also says Israel’s major film festivals — including the Jerusalem Film Festival, Haifa International Film Festival and others — “continue to partner with the Israeli government while it carries out what leading experts have defined as genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”

But it says that it does not consider all film institutions in Israel complicit, and advises people to ask questions and “seek guidelines set by Palestinian civil society.”

The Jerusalem Film Festival did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The pledge also specifies that it is targeting institutions and not individuals: “The call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity.”

A representative of the Israeli film and television industry called the boycott “misguided.”

“We are the industry that (has been) struggling for years, making efforts for decades to promote discussion,” working with Palestinians and Israelis to tell the story of the conflict from all sides, said Tzvika Gottlieb, CEO of the Israeli Film & TV Producers Association, in an interview.

Gottlieb said his industry “has consistently maintained a critical stance toward government policies, and is very vocal in criticism of this administration’s current actions. We urgently call for an immediate end to the violence, an end to the suffering, and the release of all hostages right now.”

His group added in official remarks that “this call for a boycott is profoundly misguided. By targeting us — the creators who give voice to diverse narratives and foster dialogue — these signatories are undermining their own cause and attempting to silence us.”

In response, Film Workers for Palestine issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying their initiative is “rooted in historic struggles,” in particular “the successful international movement to end the apartheid regime of South Africa.”

“Should Israeli film institutions wish to continue working with pledge signatories, their choice is clear: end complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and endorse the full rights of the Palestinian people under international law, in line with Palestinian civil society guidelines,” the statement said. “To date, almost none has.”

The pledge comes after a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the recent Venice International Film Festival drew an estimated 10,000 participants. That followed a call by a group called Venice4Palestine for the festival to condemn the destruction in Gaza.