Dawn Images

More than 1,200 Hollywood figures, including Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik and Sharon Osbourne, have signed a new letter rejecting a growing boycott of Israeli film institutions whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid.

The letter, published Thursday by Creative Community For Peace and The Brigade, was drafted in response to an earlier pledge signed by over 5,000 actors, directors and film workers — among them Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem and Olivia Colman — vowing not to collaborate with Israeli institutions.

Letter against calls for boycott of Israeli institutions

“We cannot stay silent when a story is turned into a weapon, when lies are dressed up as justice, and when artists are misled into amplifying antisemitic propaganda,” states Thursday’s letter.

Condemning the first open letter as “a document of misinformation that advocates for arbitrary censorship and the erasure of art,” the signers ask the entertainment industry to reject what they have dubbed a “discriminatory and antisemitic boycott call that only adds another roadblock on the path to peace”.

The letter goes on to say that the pledge “erases dissenting Israeli voices, legitimizes falsehoods, and shields Hamas from blame”.

Addressing the signers of the boycott pledge, the letter urges, “If you want peace, “call for the immediate release of the remaining hostages, and stand against Hamas.”

The letter rejecting the boycott has fewer A-list talent but has been signed by industry stakeholders such as Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone, Mattel Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz, Will & Grace creator David Kohan, and Fernando Szew, CEO of FOX Entertainment Global.

Letter calling for boycott of Israeli institutions

The pledge statement, published by the organisation Film Workers for Palestine, states that examples of complicity include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them”.

“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,” it reads.

In addition to Pascal, Bardem and Gomez, the letter boycotting Israeli film institutions implicated in genocide was signed by Ilana Glazer, Indira Varma, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Paapa Essiedu, Aimee Lou Wood, Ambika Mod, Alyssa Milano, Ayo Edebiri, Bassem Yousef, Benedict Wong, Melissa Barrera, Susan Sarandon, Brian Cox, Joe Alwyn, Miriam Margolyes, Tilda Swinton, Jena Malone, Zawe Ashton, and Cynthia Nixon, among many others.

Filmmakers for Palestine dismiss counter letter

In a statement to NPR, Filmmakers for Palestine dismissed the letter by Creative Community for Peace as “nothing more than thinly veiled anti-Palestinian racism”.

Paramount Studios earlier condemned the pledge to boycott complicit Israeli institutions. “We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace,” it said. “We need more engagement and communication — not less.”

The original pledge, however, does not bar people from working with Israelis, only Israeli institutions complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people. It follows several other cultural boycotts of Israel and Israeli institutions.