While in previous years there were still theaters willing to screen films from the Israeli Seret Film Festival, and public funding was also available, this year is different. The festival is being held in a synagogue and a sponsoring hotel.
For years, De Balie had been a willing host for the film festival, resulting in protests outside its doors and a media uproar. Back in 2022, we already pointed out the hypocrisy of severing ties with Russia so quickly after their invasion of Ukraine. Apparently, however, one military occupation is less bad than another. Because Israel still receives ample economic and military support from the Netherlands and the EU.
Seret is artwashing.
The Seret Film Festival is sponsored by various institutions directly and indirectly linked to the Israeli government: the Israeli Embassy, the Israeli House (part of the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah, the Ministry of Immigration), the Israeli Film Fund, and Masa Israel Journey of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the operational arm of the World Zionist Organization. Another sponsor, the Rabinovich Foundation, even censors artists by contractually prohibiting them from mentioning Israeli apartheid or the Nakba (the “catastrophe,” as Palestinians refer to their expulsion from Palestine in 1948).
Israeli events must be rescheduled
The protests have paid off: Amsterdam stopped providing funding in 2023, and today Amstelveen has also stopped funding the festival. The festival can no longer secure public venues—other Israeli events in the city have also had to find alternative locations, such as the performance by “comedian” Yohay Sponder, who was no longer welcome at Boom Chicago and subsequently found a small backroom venue in Amstelveen. Wherever artists supported by Israel perform, or events sponsored by Israel take place, they will face protests. Every time, we pull back the curtain and expose the hypocrisy and reveal what this is really about.