The Venice4Palestine collective has reiterated calls for the Palestinian flag to fly at the Venice Film Festival after its Artistic Director Alberto Barbera told Italian media the request could not be met because Palestine is not officially recognized as a state by Italy.
The collective published a first open letter on the eve of the festival calling for the Palestinian flag to fly in recognition of the two films by Palestinian directors – Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama (Al Mowaten Osama) and Muayad Alayan’s Conversation with the Sea (Hiwar ma’ albahr) – in official selection.
The festival traditionally flies all the flags representing directors with films in the selection from flagpoles on the Palazzo del Cinema, where the gala screenings take place every night.
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Barbera told Italian newspaper La Repubblica in a filmed interview on Wednesday, as the festival kicked off, that such a move was impossible because Palestine was not officially recognized as a state by Italy.
“The Palestinian flag won’t be there because the Biennale is only allowed to fly the flags of states recognized by Italy. Unfortunately, Palestine is not yet a state, even if we’d like it be and we’re fighting for that. That’s the reason why there is no flag,” he said.
Barbera noted, however, that the Biennale and festival’s attitude was “extremely evident” in its lineup of films, pointing to the selection of Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab last year.
The bombshell film reconstructed the events leading to the killing of five-year-old Hind Rajab by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024 after the car she was travelling in came under fire.
“This year there are four films tackling the Palestinian question from different points of view,” he added.
The other two films are Israeli director Amos Gitai’s and late competition addition Naza, by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Israeli directors of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
“There can’t be any doubt about the Biennale’s stance that the best way for a cultural institution to make a declaration of political responsibility in relation to such a complex issue is through the choice of films and the proposals that the films make,” Barbera told La Repubblica.
Venice4Palestine responded on Thursday morning with a second open letter entitled “Fly the Palestinian flag at the Lido”.
“We had asked for the Palestinian flag to be hoisted together with all those of the countries represented by the films present in the official selection, but Barbera confirmed on the Repubblica newspaper that the Palestinian flag will not be there – despite the presence of two Palestinian films,” read their statement.
“The pretext put forward by the Mostra’s artistic director is that only the flags of the countries recognized by the Italian State can be displayed by the Biennale and ‘unfortunately Palestine is not yet a state’ he says – conveniently overlooking that instead Palestine is a state for about 150 other countries in the world, including 35 European states – France, Spain and Great Britain among them,” it continued.
“We must point out to Director Barbera that in fact the Italian State has already implicitly recognised the State of Palestine since it has long recognised the Palestinian ambassador to Italy, Her Excellency Mona Abuamara… We therefore relaunch our request to the director to hoist the flag of Palestine for the remaining duration of the festival.
The collective added that its initial open letter – early signatories of which included Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, Nobel Prize-winning writer Annie Ernaux and directors Matteo Garrone and Isabel Coixet – had since garnered 1,000 signatures.
The Venice4Palestine campaign comes amid growing international condemnation of Israel‘s destruction and ongoing occupation of Gaza, sparked by the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks, as well as its expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, coupled with unchecked settler violence against Palestinians.
In the backdrop, the stand-off in Hollywood over the Middle East conflict has ratcheted up in recent days after Paramount accused Mark Ruffalo of using “antisemitic tropes” in a post criticizing the Paramount-WBD merger and raising concerns over its backer Oracle‘s involvement in supplying technology amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Jewish artists and thinkers put out a statement in support of Ruffalo in face of the attacks earlier this week.
Citing recent the attacks against Ruffalo as well as past criticism of Susan Sarandon and Vanessa Redgrave over their public stance in support of Palestinians, the collective reiterated its calls for festivals and cultural institutions to stop hiding behind protocols.
“We relaunch the request we have been making since last year that all institutions, especially the cultural ones, find the courage to make a discard, to go beyond the protocols and to finally take a clear stand that goes beyond words, instead of continuing to let the artists and workers in the arts and cultural sectors to have to assume, at their own individual risk, the responsibility of expressing the protest and dissent in the face of the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Government of Israel,” read its new open letter.
It concluded with a call for people to join a public protest scheduled to take place on September 9 in front of the Italian parliament in Rome under the banner of “Solidarity cannot be put on trial, dissent cannot be silenced”.
