An Israeli film festival's co-founder has slammed a pair of UK cinema chains for promoting "cancel culture" after they refused to host screenings for the event, allegedly due to the "political atmosphere".
Odelia Haroush, the co-founder and chief exec of the Seret International Film Festival - which showcases the "best of Israeli feature films, documentaries, shorts and TV" - said Curzon Cinemas and Picturehouse Cinemas, despite the pair being long-term partners of the festival, had declined to show films featured in this year's offering.
Haroush said Seret had been pushed to drop film showings in Cambridge over what she called the "political atmosphere with the university and students there".
Haroush added: "Their role should be to show films and culture and not cancel culture... Especially now; don't cancel Palestinian culture, Russian culture, Ukrainian culture or Israeli culture.
"It is not that I am going to show [films] that show everything is blooming and great in Israel.
"We pick films on their artistic values and not political values. But I believe from the bottom of my heart in free speech."
She said people involved in the film world were "not the ones to blame for what is going on in Israel", and that she believed it was important its culture could be seen throughout the rest of the world.
Haroush continued: "This is why I am fighting; I want to show their work outside Israel... [But] the pressures on cinema houses and the pressure not to go and see a film is very very big now."
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The festival attracted a string of demonstrations earlier this year when it was being shown at cinemas in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
In the former, protests became "violent", while in the latter, a cinema banned a film screening, forcing Haroush to relocate with just 24 hours' notice.
Though Seret is "independent, non-political and non-religious", it does receive Israeli state funding - though Haroush said this accounted for under five per cent of the festival’s budget.
She said the festival - a registered charity - received "much more funding" from the New Israel Fund, which Haroush described as "very left-wing" and a supporter of a "two-state solution".
Haroush, who was born in Israel-born but has lived in London for decades, said Picturehouse had told her it was "not going to work" in November, with an executive reportedly adding: "We are afraid for our staff and for our visitors".
Curzon, on the other hand, had allegedly originally agreed to host screenings - but following an Israeli missile strike on a food truck in Gaza earlier this year, its management had rescinded the offer.
This year’s festival's UK screenings, due to be held in May, have now been limited to a small venue in Brighton and a few locations in North-West London.
Claire Fox, Baroness Fox of Buckley, said the festival "has faced relentless attacks & bullying from anti-Israel activists, including: threatened boycotts of cinema houses; demands to cancel screenings; threats to partners, coercing them to withdraw their support.
She added: "If we let such censorship have a free pass, it means a serious blow to artistic freedom in general, on ALL and ANY controversial topics and should be opposed", and prompted people to support a crowdfunding appeal for Seret - which has raised almost £14,000.
GB News has approached Curzon Cinemas and Picturehouse Cinemas for comment.
