{"id":141667,"date":"2025-05-29T14:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141667\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T14:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:58:09","slug":"glasgow-film-theatre-refuses-to-endorse-israel-boycott-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141667\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow Film Theatre refuses to endorse Israel boycott movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Glasgow Film Theatre<\/a> has announced it will not be endorsing the full boycott of products and companies linked to Israel.<\/p>\n

Glasgow Film announced on Thursday that it wouldn\u2019t fully endorse either the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement or the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).<\/p>\n

The cinema said this was in order to retain \u201cindependent decision making\u201d and uphold its \u201ccommitment to Cinema<\/a> For All\u201d.<\/p>\n

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It comes after a boycott by the GFT’s front-of-house and cleaning teams<\/a> on handling any goods connected to the BDS\u00a0movement led to Coca-Cola products no longer being served.<\/p>\n

Art Workers for Palestine<\/a> Scotland then\u00a0published an open letter to the GFT calling for the cinema to adhere to the (BDS) movement<\/a> and endorse PACBI.<\/p>\n

The letter was signed by more than 1400 and included the likes of Ghassan Abu-Sittah, rector of the University of Glasgow<\/a> and filmmaker Ken Loach.<\/p>\n

But Glasgow Film has decided to not formally endorse the movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board of Trustees at Glasgow Film recognise the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza<\/a> and are appalled by the ongoing loss of Palestinian lives,\u201d a statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the depth and diversity of feeling within our staff, audiences, and wider communities, and we acknowledge the calls from artists and activists for cultural and consumer boycotts in solidarity with Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also recognise the rising levels of anti-semitism, Islamophobia and polarisation in our communities and condemn any kind of racism or discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

The statement added: \u201cAs an independent charity, trustees are legally required to act in the best interests of the charity, and in line with its charitable objects which are, for Glasgow Film, principally to educate the public about film. To meet this obligation, we believe that all decisions, including those relating to ethical purchasing and programming, should be taken independently, and on a case-by-case basis, informed by robust internal policies and processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

They announced a review and refresh \u201cin consultation with staff\u201d on their ethical policies and \u201cassess any connections to human rights abuses\u201d and claimed a review of products in the cinema\u2019s bar has already started.<\/p>\n

The board also said it would continue to platform global filmmakers including Palestinian artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing a period of careful reflection, legal advice, and consultation with staff and community stakeholders, we consider the above approach to be in line with our legal duties as charity trustees and in the best interests of the charity, as opposed to formal and wholesale endorsement of BDS or PACBI,\u201d the statement went on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Glasgow Film Theatre has announced it will not be endorsing the full boycott of products and companies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7826],"tags":[61312,748,61315,61314,918,61313,4884,61316,837,712,16,15,12814],"class_list":["post-141667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glasgow","tag-bds","tag-britain","tag-cultural-boycott-of-israel","tag-gft","tag-glasgow","tag-glasgow-film","tag-great-britain","tag-independent-charity","tag-israel","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-university-of-glasgow"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114591714669253824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}