\n\tSome of the U.K.\u2019s most prominent studios and screen organizations have been sent a legal warning over an industry boycott of Israeli film institutions.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe letter from U.K. Lawyers for Israel states that the boycott, which has been backed by Hollywood stars including Joaquin Phoenix<\/a>, Emma Stone, Olivia Colman and Mark Ruffalo, is a breach of the U.K.\u2019s Equality Act and may also have a knock-on impact on financing and insurance. <\/p>\n \n\tThe U.K. outposts of Netflix<\/a>, Disney, Amazon Studios, Apple and Warner Bros. Discovery are among those who have been sent the letter as well as domestic companies including the BBC<\/a>, Film4 and ITV. Other recipients include film organizations such as the BFI and Pact, agencies Curtis Brown and United Agents and unions including Bectu and Equity.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[The Equality Act 2010] is the key legislation in the U.K. protecting against racism and discriminatory treatment,\u201d states the letter, which has been seen by Variety. \u201cIf the U.K. television and film industry colludes with acts contrary to this legislation, organizations are themselves likely to be in breach. It also creates a dangerous precedent: one that condones the exclusion of individuals and\/or organizations based solely on their nationality, ethnicity, and\/or religion.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe letter also claims that the boycott\u2019s attempt at \u201cselective application \u2014 exempting some institutions based on the ethnicity or religion of their members \u2014 strongly indicates that [its] operation is based not only on nationality but also on religion and ethnicity.\u201d According to Film Workers for Palestine, which organized the boycott, it does not apply to Palestinian Israelis, for whom there are different \u201ccontext sensitive guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAlthough the boycott claims only to target Israeli-linked film institutions and not individuals, the Equality Act protects organizations as well as people. This is likely to be particularly relevant in the screen industry, where many actors and producers contract their services through companies.<\/p>\n \n\tStudios could potentially be liable for any breaches of the Equality Act carried out by their \u201cstaff and agents,\u201d according to the letter. Actors, producers, agents, managers, production companies, producers and \u201canyone else who instructs, causes, induces, or helps to implement the Boycott\u2013 for example, encouraging a distributor not to deal with Israeli outlets, or advising a colleague to insist on a Boycott clause\u201d could also incur liability.<\/p>\n \n\tThe letter goes on to state that deliberate attempts to breach the Equality Act are \u201chighly likely to be a litigation risk and a notifiable event\u201d for the purposes of insurance and may even invalidate insurance policies.<\/p>\n \n\tThere is also a potential knock-on effect on funding, with most funding bodies such as the BFI requiring productions to be compliant with the Equality Act.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt follows that a breach of the [Act] through the Boycott, would render a film ineligible for government funding, or trigger clawback of finance already granted,\u201d the letter warns.<\/p>\n \n\tMore than 4,000 film industry names have signed the boycott including Yorgos Lanthimos, Ava DuVernay, Adam McKay, Boots Riley, Emma Seligman, Joshua Oppenheimer and Mike Leigh. They have pledged \u201cnot to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions \u2014 including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.\u201d In an asterisk, the letter clarifies that \u201cimplicated\u201d is defined as \u201cwhitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and\/or partnering with the government committing them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLast month, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law of Washington D.C. sent out a letter to U.S. companies stating that the boycott infringes U.S. Federal and State laws. \u201cNumerous federal and state civil rights laws plainly prohibit applying the Hollywood Blacklist [Boycott] against Israeli, and specifically Jewish Israeli, individuals and organizations based or operating in the U.S., and offer victims a mechanism for holding accountable those organizations and individuals responsible for violating their rights,\u201d the Brandeis Centre letter warns. \u201cTo be clear: these laws apply to you, and not only to those direct signatories who would unlawfully aid, abet, and incite you to apply the Hollywood Blacklist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the U.K.\u2019s most prominent studios and screen organizations have been sent a legal warning over an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":300122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6531,171,373,4659,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-300121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-israel-hamas-war","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}