Leading Hollywood actors including Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon denounced "genocide" in Gaza in an open letter released Monday, May 12, by pro-Palestinian activists on the eve of the Cannes film festival. "We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza," said the letter published by French newspaper Libération.
The newspaper said the letter was signed by some 380 world cinema figures including Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and director Ruben Ostlund, a former Cannes winner. It comes days after former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of "genocidal intent."
Borrell said Israel was "carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war," while Amnesty International last month said a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians was going on in the besieged territory. Israel dismissed the claims as "blatant lies."
The open letter paid tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna − the star of a documentary that will be premiered at Cannes − who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month. Its director, exiled Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, as well as Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser, who are also showing their new film at the festival, were said by organisers to have signed.
The letter, which urged the film community to "rise up" and "name reality," also criticised the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not immediately defending Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal after he was attacked by Israeli settlers earlier this year.
British director Jonathan Glazer was also among the names listed. He sparked controversy last year when he said the Holocaust had been "hijacked" by Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory while receiving an Oscar for his 2023 Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest.