Renowned London-based Kashmiri author Mirza Waheed has announced that he will boycott the screening of the film adaptation of his novel ‘The Collaborator’ at the Tamuz Shomron Film Festival, which is being held in an Israeli settlement. In a statement published on the New York City-based website Literary Hub, Waheed explained that his decision stems from his strong opposition to the festival’s ties with Israeli cultural institutions that he believes are complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. Waheed voiced his discomfort with the festival’s association with Israeli settlement culture and emphasized that he would not participate in any promotional activities or public relations efforts related to the film unless it is withdrawn from the event.

The Tamuz Shomron Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place in Ariel, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, in December 2024, is supported by the Shomron Cinema Fund. Critics in Israel have referred to the fund as the "settler film fund" due to its backing of settlement activities. Waheed highlighted that several prominent Israeli filmmakers and actors had previously boycotted the Samaria Cinema Fund and its inaugural festival two years ago over its connection to settlement expansion. Waheed explained his position in his statement: “I cannot allow my work to be associated with a platform whose purpose is to whitewash Israeli apartheid and undermine Palestinian rights.” He expressed deep concern about his name being linked, even indirectly, to any Israeli cultural institution or event complicit in the ongoing dispossession and disempowerment of Palestinians.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong about screening a film in an Israeli settlement in the middle of a genocide,” Waheed added, referring to his personal experience of the apartheid system during a visit to Palestine. Notably, The Collaborator, a poignant narrative set against Kashmir’s political turbulence in the 1990s, has been adapted for the screen by Mulberry Films, a production house based in the United States, in collaboration with Metro Productions from Georgia. While Waheed expressed understanding that the film’s producers are free to make their own choices regarding the film's distribution, he emphasized that it is within his power to decide how he engages with the project.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan