The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles have released a statement endorsed by numerous film actors and other professionals attacking the recent protests against the Toronto International Film Festival for including the city of Tel Aviv in the Festival’s City to City program.
The statement signed by Natalie Portman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jerry Seinfeld, Darren Starr, Jason Alexander, Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Kudrow, Canadians Robert Lantos, Ivan Reitman, David Cronenberg, Moses Znaimer, Patricia Rozema and numerous others states:
We applaud the Toronto International Film Festival for including the Israeli film community in the Festival’s City to City program. The visiting filmmakers represent a dynamic national cinema, the best of Israel’s open, uncensored, artistic expression. Anyone who has actually seen recent Israeli cinema, movies that are political and personal, comic and tragic, often critical, knows they are in no way a propaganda arm for any government policy. Blacklisting them only stifles the exchange of cultural knowledge that artists should be the first to defend and protect. Those who refuse to see these films for themselves or prevent them from being seen by others are violating a cherished right shared by Canada and all democratic countries.”
The Jewish Journal has more coverage including an open letter by Producer Tom Barad who called the Toronto Declaration “absurd” and has composed a counter-protest letter that is currently circulating in Hollywood.