Atlanta Jewish Film Festival apologizes over anti-Zionist juror judging human rights films |
JTA — The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival apologized and announced it would review its internal processes after the Israeli consulate withdrew its support over an anti-Zionist juror.
The Israeli Consulate in the Southeastern United States withdrew its support for the annual festival Friday after learning one of the student jurors in the human rights category “shared antisemitic and anti-Israel content,” the consulate said in a statement.
The film festival acknowledged the consulate’s decision on Friday and issued an apology on Sunday, saying that it “fell short” in assessing jurors.
“Recent conversations within the Jewish community have made clear that the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival fell short in our internal processes regarding the recent jury matter,” the festival said in its Sunday night statement. “This situation has surfaced clear deficiencies, gaps, and adherence issues in our existing organizational processes and policies, including those related to antisemitism, [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions,] and cultural boycotts.”
But the festival said that because the juror selection process had already been finalized, the juror at issue could not be removed ahead of the festival, which runs through March 15.
Neither the festival nor the Israeli consulate named the juror, but local media reporting identified him as Anwar Karim, a film student at Morehouse College and a Spike Lee Fellow at the Gersh Agency.
Karim’s social media presence and film portfolio include discussion of the war in Gaza. In one video, a political poem titled “Devil’s Work,” Karim raps over news clips and social media........