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The protest is not against the individual Israeli filmmakers included in City to City, nor does it in any way suggest that Israeli films should be unwelcome at TIFF. However, especially in the wake of this year’s brutal assault on Gaza, protest is against the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime.

Kourosh Ziabari talks to the co-founder of the Palestine International Solidarity Movement, Adam Shapiro.

While calls to boycott Israel are understandable, there is little evidence that sanctions are an effective way to weaken to a government. Many times it leads to the impoverishment of civilians and the strengthening of the targeted administration.

Israel knows it can act with impunity and still get the support of the world’s superpower. It is up to consumers to make sure it suffers the economic consequences of its illegal occupation and violence.