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Call off Israeli Film Festival, Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association tells Indo Cine Foundation

Call off Israeli Film Festival, Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association tells Indo Cine Foundation

The Hindu26-05-2025
Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association has called upon the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF) not to organise the Israeli Film Festival that is scheduled to be held between May 29 and May 31 in Chennai.
The association has flagged the timing of the festival, at a time when the Zionist State is being hauled up internationally for war crimes.
Especially in a State like Tamil Nadu, where people's political consciousness is aligned with the people of Palestine endorsing their natural right to Statehood, it was tone-deaf on the part of ICAF to equate Israel to other nations and organise the Israeli Film Festival. It amounted to sanitising the crimes of Israel, the association has stated.
At a time, when the State of Israel had unleashed colonisation by terror on the peoples of Palestine and grabbed their lands in a continuing war, ICAF has announced an Israeli Film Festival in the name of film appreciation.
'When Israel has been isolated internationally for war crimes, to lend a platform to Israel's cinema alongside the cinema of other countries was akin to normalising the Zionist State's war crimes,' the Statement by TNPWAA said.
The Association has called upon the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation to voluntarily call off the festival, failing which, the State Government should deny permission for the conduct of the festival, said the statement released by Madhukur Ramalingam, State President, Aadhavan Deetchanya, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association.
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