NFDC Calls Off Israel Film Festival After Citizen Campaign (image-X/AkimotoThn)
The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) has cancelled the Israel Film Festival after an online campaign by more than a thousand people against the event, which was scheduled to take place in Mumbai.
Originally planned to be held for August 21 and 22 at Mumbai’s National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC), the announcement of the event led to over thousands of activists, artists, and citizens starting a signature campaign online calling for its cancellation.
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“This screening by the NFDC [National Film Development Corporation] is shamefully being held at a time when the entire world is witness to Israeli war crimes, the ongoing Holocaust, and the genocide in Gaza and across all of Palestine,” said the India Palestine Solidarity Forum, an informal group focused on raising awareness about the Gaza genocide, in a statement.
Some of the signatories include actors Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, senior human rights lawyer Mihir Desai, freedom fighter GG Parikh, academic Irfan Engineer, and Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson and activist Tushar Gandhi, among others.
Neither NFDC nor NMIC have released an official statement at the time of publication; however, the organisers of the online campaign have confirmed the cancellation of the festival.
We have confirmed news that the NFDC/NMIC have called off the “Israel Film Festival”, to be held in Mumbai on the 21st-22nd of Aug…a signature campaign…got endorsements from over a 1000 people..NFDC/NMIC deciding to hold the festival was shocking
— Subhashini Ali (@SubhashiniAli) August 20, 2024
Highlighting that the Indian government has recognised the Palestinian state, on Monday the group called the decision of both NFDC and NMIC of screening Israeli films within the current circumstances as “totally immoral, unethical, unconscionable, and a travesty of justice to say the least.”
Referring to an article titled “Counting the Dead in Gaza—Difficult but Essential” dated July 5, 2024 in the medical research journal The Lancet, the group stated, “The Israeli regime has murdered 186,000 Palestinians, of whom 70% are children and women. The number may have now surpassed 200,000. This means that the Israeli regime has killed over 8% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, which clearly constitutes a Holocaust, no less.”
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The India Palestine Solidarity Forum also emphasised that the Israeli war crimes have been documented and presented by a panel of South African Human Rights Lawyers at the International Criminal Court of Justice, where Israel is found guilty of genocide.
“In the presence of such damning evidence, the NFDC must immediately cancel the so-called Israel Film Festival,” the group said.
