Art Workers for Palestine Scotland Open Letter to Glasgow Film

Art Workers for Palestine Scotland initiated an open letter calling on Glasgow Film to heed the call of Palestinians and boycott Israel through adhering to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and endorsing the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The letter has now been supported by over 600 filmmakers, actors, public figures, audience members, GFT members, GFT workers – including the Unite Hospitality branch at GFT – and others historically or currently affiliated with GFT. Key Signatories of the letter include Rector of Glasgow University, Ghassan Abu Sitta, Gavin Mitchell, Paul Laverty, Jasleen Kaur, Alberta Whittle, and Charlotte Church.

The letter reads:

“This open letter has been initiated by audiences, partners, and workers of the Unite Hospitality Branch of Glasgow Film Theatre. We urge the GFT to recognise the power of film as a medium for social change, and, through adhering to BDS and PACBI, to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and all affected by Israeli aggression.

Amnesty International, UN experts and genocide scholars all agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Furthermore, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s highest court, has recognised that it is “plausible”, triggering an unprecedented legal responsibility of third parties to end all complicity in genocide.

Almost seventy Palestinian filmmakers recently said, “we call on our international colleagues in the film industry, visionaries for the kind of world we would like to live in, to speak out against this genocide and the erasure, racism and censorship that enable it; to do everything humanly possible to stop and end complicity with this unspeakable horror”.

We urge the GFT to commit to the following:

• Remove Barclays adverts that play prior to some film screenings. Barclays is directly complicit by investing billions in weapons companies arming Israel’s genocide and is a priority target of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

• Endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and refuse to collaborate with complicit Israeli cultural institutions. PACBI, as a founding member of the BDS movement, challenges cultural complicity in Israel’s longstanding disregard of international law. The ICJ’s historic 2024 ruling that Israel’s occupation is illegal shows that BDS is not only morally justified, but legally obligatory. Over 150 organisations in Scotland have endorsed PACBI, including 19 film and moving image organisations, collectives and festivals. Doing so is the most meaningful way Scottish cultural organisations can take a stand, and follows the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa, of which Scottish culture provided a powerful contribution.

• Develop and implement a wider BDS policy around GFT’s commercial activities, including hospitality and advertising, so that the products of complicit Israeli companies and BDS priority targets are excluded from GFT. This includes a commitment to removing and replacing Coca-Cola from the GFT bar.

GFT is widely recognised and praised as a socially progressive space, showcasing films from oppressed and marginalised perspectives. It is incumbent on GFT to demonstrate a stance that mirrors this. Film is political, and to act as if it isn’t, degrades the political power of the medium. It is time for GFT to stand with the vast majority of its audiences, workers, partners and filmmakers, and take a stand for Palestinian liberation.”

Go HERE to add your name.