The Israeli invasion of Gaza against Hamas has been causing strong controversies in the Western cultural world for months and Barcelona is now the epicenter of one of them. The Cinemes Girona have canceled the Seret Israeli film festival and do not want to make statements so as not to fuel the controversy, but the co-founders of the event Odelia Haroush and Patty Hochmann have denounced on networks that “due to threats from anti-Israeli organizations, which cannot accept “the fact that artistic freedom is more important than political freedom, we are forced to change the location of our festival.”
A film festival that was born in the United Kingdom in 2012 and that has expanded over the years to various European countries, such as Germany, and South America, such as Chile and Argentina. This year, Cinemes Girona had joined in for the first time, and they were going to screen four films from today until the 18th, starting with the romantic comedy Matchmaking, by Erez Tadmor, translated as Goodfellas. The comedy Hummus Full Trailer, by Asaf Kobrovsky, the comedy-drama Karaoke, by Moshe Rosenthal, and the drama Seven Blessings, by Ayelet Menachemi, were also going to be screened. The festival organization has moved the screenings to another location in Barcelona that they did not want to make public. The tickets were already sold out.
The co-founders of Seret wanted to “emphasize that no one can or should silence freedom of expression, art and cinema.” The Netherlands should be the next to host another Seret celebration next month. The Jewish Community of Barcelona has addressed the property of the Cinemes Girona on social networks: “We respect your decision. We regret the pressure you must be experiencing, but no one will touch you, your family or your company. We, at know what has happened, the centenary Jewish community of Catalonia wants to tell you that it is at your disposal. We will not allow anyone to coerce you or manipulate your decision. We will support you by resorting to the law and the prosecutor’s office if necessary. We defend the values ??of freedom and defense of culture”.
For its part, the Prou ??complicitat amb Israel coalition has stated that “we celebrate the brave decision of Cinemes Girona to respond to the call for solidarity with the Palestinian people and to confront genocide, apartheid, colonialism and the occupation of Israel.” La Vanguardia has tried to obtain Cinemes Girona’s reasons for the cancellation, but has not received a response.
