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href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Tel-Avivs-Pinkwashing-LGBT-Film-Fest-Sees-Nearly-Half-of-International-Filmmakers-Pull-out-in-BDS-win-20170531-0023.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Tel-Avivs-Pinkwashing-LGBT-Film-Fest-Sees-Nearly-Half-of-International-Filmmakers-Pull-out-in-BDS-win-20170531-0023.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Tel Aviv's 'Pinkwashing' LGBT Film Fest
Sees Nearly Half of International Filmmakers Pull out in BDS
win<br>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time">31 May 2017</div>
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<p>In its decade-long run, Tel Aviv’s LGBT Film Festival
has never before been hit with such pressure from <a
href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinian-Group-Slams-New-York-Governor-over-BDS-Blacklist-20161204-0026.html">Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists </a>supporting
Palestine — till now, as nearly half of its
international guests have pulled out from participating.</p>
<p>Even its director, Yair Hochner, admitted the same,
telling the Jerusalem Post, “I think they just did a
very good job this year, the pinkwashing people, as they
call themselves.”</p>
<p>The boycott efforts have been spearheaded by
Pinkwashing Israel, who say the TLVFest “promotes the
cynical use of gay rights – known as pinkwashing – to
distract from and normalize Israeli occupation, settler
colonialism and apartheid.”</p>
<p>South African director John Trengove was one of the
first guests to pull out, telling organizers last week
that he could no longer participate, and citing the
concerns of BDS activists.</p>
<p>“It is impossible to look past the fact that the
festival (and my participation in it) could serve as a
diversion from the human rights violations being
committed by the State of Israel,” Trengove wrote.</p>
<p><strong>"Occupation won't wash away so easily. With the
Palestinians against pinkwashing!"</strong></p>
<p>While he had asked organizers to pull his film as well,
they said that because they had already paid for its
rights, they would be going ahead with its screening on
June 1.</p>
<p>It’s the same case with Fawzia Mirza, a
Pakistani-Canadian actress and filmmaker — whose
screening of “Signature Move,” a film about a lesbian
relationship between a Pakistani and a Mexican in the
United States — is still being screened, despite her
canceling her participation.</p>
<p>Mirza canceled, citing her identity as a “Muslim queer
person,” becoming one of five out 12 international guest
to cancel.</p>
<p>The producers of the film Chavela also requested their
movie be pulled from the show, but noted that their
distribution contract would not allow them to cancel its
screening.</p>
<p>The festival is a part of Tel Aviv’s Pride Week
celebrations, which will culminate in a Gay Pride Parade
in the city on June 9. Palestine solidarity activists
have long cited these celebrations as normalizing
Israel’s occupation.</p>
<p>Organizers for the festival said the BDS’s targeting
has caused “a severe upheaval and a threat to the
existence of the LGBT film festival.”</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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