More reasons to revoke the Australia/Israel Coproduction treaty
Today I sent the following email to Tony Burke, Minister for the Arts:
Dear Minister,
Last year I wrote to you to on behalf of hundreds of Australians who signed a petition urging you and your Government to revoke Australia’s co-production treaty with Israel.
That petition which has now been signed by 2,790 people, many of them filmmakers and artists, can be viewed here — https://c.org/2gX7gFqbY8
It arose from concerns about attacks, including by Israeli Defence Force members, on filmmakers involved in production of the award-winning documentary No Other Land. Some months after I wrote to you, a contributor to the making of that film — Awdah Hathaleen — was murdered in the West Bank, allegedly by an Israeli settler.
You may have read of a new film, Naza, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the recent Venice Film festival, where it also received a 25-minute standing ovation. The documentary is about mass killings of civilian Palestinians in Gaza. Its Israeli filmmakers, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, were also involved in production of No other Land.
Israel’s Minister for Culture, Miki Zohar, has responded to their Venice win by announcing that he will initiate proceedings to strip the filmmakers of their Israeli citizenship. He has called them despicable and accused them of treason. For more detail see this article in today’s Guardian.
In view of this further outrageous attack on freedom of expression and on Israeli filmmakers producing material not aligned with the positions of their Government, I again ask you to revoke the Australia – Israel coproduction treaty.
Responding on your behalf in July 2025, Jason Potkins assured me that the government would continue to monitor Australia’s co-production agreements and consider whether they are of benefit to Australian screen producers.
Surely given the events and situation described above, our agreement with Israel is not delivering benefits. Even though it has rarely been used, it remains on Screen Australia’s website as an active cooperative agreement between the Governments of Australia and Israel.
Its existence is deeply troubling to those who value freedom of expression and to many filmmakers who have concerns for the safety of their colleagues in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
It is unacceptable that Australia should have a coproduction agreement with a nation that responds to its dissident documentary filmmakers by assaulting them, vilifying them or by threatening them with the loss of citizenship.
I urge you to express Australia’s objections to the Israeli Minister for Culture’s threatening statements and to revoke the treaty.
Yours sincerely,
Sharon Connolly