One more example of how the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel is gathering steam, mostly far away from the mainstream media.
The Edinburgh Film Festival, after pressure from the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) and film-maker Ken Loach, has decided against accepting money from the Israeli Embassy.
Loach’s statement was strong:
I’m sure many film makers will be as horrified as I am to learn that the Edinburgh International Film Festival is accepting money from Israel. The massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable. With regret, I must urge all who might consider visiting the festival to show their support for the Palestinian nation, and stay away.
The SPSC released the following statement on Friday:
Ginnie Atkinson, Managing Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has confirmed that EIFF will not be taking Israeli Embassy money to help fund the 2009 film festival. Atkinson was unwilling to admit EIFF was influenced by Scottish PSC, or by the protest emails the EIFF has received since Tuesday, and said that the decision was “a natural conclusion to having realised that we had made a mistake in the first place”. Their decision follows the Scottish PSC call earlier today for a protest outside the Filmhouse in Edinburgh where the EIFF is based. Mention of the Israeli Embassy on the EIFF’s ”˜Honour Board’ was removed after Atkinson and the EIFF admitted that “it was a mistake to accept the …£300 from the Israeli Embassy”.
This is the kind of non-violent protest that is starting to have an effect.