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Three Hong Kong activists protested an Israeli consulate-backed film festival on Saturday, calling for a boycott of the festival that the group said promoted state-sponsored propaganda. Activist Yu Wai-pan and two others held placards and a Palestinian flag at around 7pm on Saturday at the foyer of Emperor Cinemas in Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay, before the screening of the Hong Kong Jewish Festival’s opening film. The trio also urged people to boycott the “artwashing” of Israel’s war in Gaza. The nine-day film festival opened on Saturday with the 2024 film Soda, starring Lior Raz, a former commando in an elite undercover counterterrorism unit of the Israel Defence Forces. The anti-war protesters were immediately surrounded and outnumbered by Israeli consulate staff, identified by their badges, as well as plainclothes police officers and mall security personnel. The three activists shouted slogans such as “Free Palestine,” “Arrest Netanyahu,” and “Reject Israel’s cultural hasbara,” referring to Israel’s state propaganda, for about 15 minutes until they were escorted out of the shopping mall by police officers who were already on the scene before the protest began. The film festival, held at Emperor Cinemas and Golden Scene Cinema in Kennedy Town, is supported by the Israeli, US, French, German, Canadian, and Italian consulates in Hong Kong, and sponsored by bagel restaurant Schragels Delicatessen. ‘Reject Israeli artwashing’ The protest was met with insults from attendees of the film festival, who called the activists “losers” and showed them the middle finger. Individuals understood to be consulate staff also attempted to block an HKFP reporter, as well as other passers-by, from recording and taking photos of the protest. After about 15 minutes, the shopping mall’s management ordered its staff to remove the protesters from the premises. The police then escorted the trio into a lift and gave them a warning outside the mall before taking the activists to Causeway Bay MTR station. The protesters were not arrested or charged. The trio was among the five activists who marched along Tsim Sha Tsui last month to call for a ceasefire. Yu is a former member of the now-defunct League of Social Democrats. The flash-mob style protest was held “to show solidarity with Palestine” and “reject Israeli artwashing and propaganda,” the group said in a statement on Monday. “We emphasised that culture is never neutral, demanded Hong Kong cinemas to stop platforming Zionism or facilitating Israel’s artwashing.” The death toll in Gaza continues to rise, topping 69,000 on Saturday, despite a US-brokered ceasefire. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed more than 240 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10. The Israeli military’s own data indicate that 83 per cent of those killed are civilians. Meanwhile, 241 journalists have been killed in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel does not allow foreign journalists to enter the enclave and denies targeting media workers. An independent United Nations inquiry concluded for the first time in September that “Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel denies the charge.
