WEST BANK (Dispatches) – In one of the largest protests against the Zionist regime’s apartheid, more than 300 filmmakers signed a petition in which they refuse to cooperate with the Shomron Film Fund.
Oscar-nominated filmmakers were amongst the signatories who slammed the fund as being “part of the apartheid mechanism”. Shomron is the Hebrew word for Samaria – which is the Biblical name of the occupied West Bank.
Founded by controversial former Zionist so-called minister of culture Miri Regev, the fund distributes grants exclusively to Zionists in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. With the regime grant denied to non-Jews, it is one of the clearest examples of the regime’s many racist policies which every major human rights group has concluded amounts to the crime of apartheid.
The signatories pledged that they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the Shomron Film Fund following its inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank in July, the signatories said that “Israeli Cinema Will Not Be Instrumentalized to Whitewash the Occupation.” The statement was sparked by the stormy controversy that erupted after the Samaria Film Festival was held for the first time about two months ago, in the illegal West Bank settlement of Ariel, in the presence of a number of leading Zionist cinema figures.
The group, which includes Israeli and international filmmakers, said that the fund was “part and parcel of the mechanisms of apartheid.” They dismissed its claim to be in support of diversity and pluralism. “The term ‘diversity’ becomes devoid of meaning when in practice it obfuscates systematic violence and serious violations of human rights,” said the letter.
The signatories urged filmmakers to “draw a red line” in rejecting the Zionist regime’s ongoing occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory.
They warned that the inaugural festival and the fund “is not a love of culture but a politic aimed at erasing the green line and the distinction between military and civilian regimes.”