The Consulate General of Israel to the Southeastern United States announced that it will end its partnership and financial support of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival over a juror’s views on the state of Israel and the war in Gaza posted to social media.
On Feb. 20, the Consulate released a statement that it would pull its support from the festival, which began Feb. 18 and runs through March 15. According to the Consulate’s statement, it discovered that a juror had posted what it deemed “antisemitic and anti-Israel content” on social media. When the Consulate told festival leadership, the festival made the decision to continue to allow the juror to participate.
“As representatives of the State of Israel we cannot normalize the inclusion of individuals who take an active role in attempting to delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state,” reads the statement. “To this end, we have made the decision to withdraw our partnership and financial support from the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.”
ATL Jewish Film, the organization that runs the festival, released an initial statement on Feb. 20 defending its decision, citing the importance of creating spaces where people with different opinions can come together and engage in a dialogue.
“Just as the festival presents films and filmmakers representing a range of voices, thoughtful engagement across viewpoints is important to meaningful dialogue within the jury process and the broader community,” reads the statement.
Neither ATL Jewish Film nor the Consulate has publicly named the juror in question.
A source with knowledge of the film festival’s jury selection process said that after the Consulate contacted the organizers, festival leadership looked to see if anything in AJFF’s policies said that a person cannot serve on the film festival jury if they criticize Israel. When nothing did, leadership decided to allow the juror to continue to participate. The jury process continued without incident.
On Feb. 22, ATL Jewish Film walked back its defense in a post on social media.
“We are sorry,” reads the Feb. 22 statement. “Recent conversations within the Jewish community have made clear that the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival fell short in our internal processes regarding the recent jury matter. We regret and share in the depth of concern expressed by members of our community and the distress it has caused.”
According to the statement, the festival plans to review its processes for choosing individuals to serve in festival roles as well as its policies related to “cultural boycotts, antisemitism, anti-Zionist activity, and organizational participation.” A representative for the festival did not elaborate when asked for clarification about how strict those policies would be in regards to criticism of Israel, but offered this statement:
“Following the festival, we will continue reviewing policies and procedures to ensure they uphold our commitments as a Jewish and cultural organization while reaffirming our belief in engaging across differences and creating spaces for dialogue.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta released a statement on Feb. 23 commending the festival for its apology, but said that its current and future financial support of the festival would be “contingent upon demonstrated follow-through, including clarified policies, strengthened vetting processes, and consistent operationalization of those standards.”
“We applaud their willingness to listen and to take these concerns seriously,” reads the statement. “At the same time, [the] Federation has a responsibility that extends beyond any single relationship.”
Matt Goldberg, a member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle who served as a juror for this year’s festival, expressed disappointment in the Consulate’s decision to pull its funding.
“For my own part and speaking purely for myself, I find their reaction unreasonable. We can’t conflate being against Israel’s actions in Gaza with being antisemitic. Benjamin Netanyahu is not the President of Judaism,” Goldberg said in a written statement.
Goldberg compared the Consulate’s decision to pull out of the festival to the Israeli Ministry of Culture’s promise to defund the Ophir Awards, also known as the Israeli Oscars, because the Best Picture prize went to “The Sea,” a film about a Palestinian boy who lives under occupation in the West Bank. “The Sea,” directed by Shai Carmeli-Pollak, is playing at this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival on Feb. 25.
“These are not the actions of a government that wants a pluralistic society, but one where contesting controversial policy is attacked as bigotry,” Goldberg said. “Film is where we come together to engage in art and differing viewpoints. I welcome anyone who questions Israel’s approach towards Palestine because I know I certainly do.”