The Red Scare blacklist era—one in which those in the entertainment industry were targeted, investigated and ostracized for their supposed political sympathies and associates—remains one of the film industry’s darkest chapters. It was a time when fear and conformity eclipsed both principle and legality. Today, under the guise of political activism, we are watching the same playbook unfold again.
The “Film Workers Pledge to End Complicity,” circulated by Film Workers for Palestine, commits signatories not to screen, appear at, or work with Israeli film institutions, “including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies—that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” In practice, this isn’t a narrow act of conscience. It is a sweeping demand that Hollywood professionals use their leverage to blacklist an entire national cinema—its artists, its companies, and its institutions—because they are Israeli. The blacklist has exceptions for Palestinian-Israelis, only targeting Jewish Israelis.
The pledge targets and ostracizes an entire group of people based on who they are and where they were born. And ironically it marginalizes storytellers and silences diverse voices and perspectives that have long advocated for discourse and engagement between Israelis and Palestinians.
The pledge’s FAQ claims that “the vast majority of Israeli film production & distribution companies, sales agents, cinemas and other film institutions have never endorsed the full, internationally-recognized rights of the Palestinian people” and thus warrant boycott. A token exception exists for a “few Israeli film entities that are not complicit,” but not one is identified. Instead, boycotters are told to look to Palestinian civil society guidelines—guidelines that, in practice, place every Israeli institution off-limits.
To dodge the obvious charge of national-origin discrimination, the pledge insists it does not ban working with Israelis as individuals. “The call is for film workers to refuse to work with Israeli institutions that are complicit… This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity,” the pledge states. But this is a legal fiction. Institutions are owned, managed, and staffed by people. Under many applicable civil rights laws, institutions are also protected from discrimination.
The pledge is explicit about how the boycott should work: professionals are encouraged to aid, abet, and incite the U.S. film industry to fall in line with the Blacklist by baking restrictions into “employment, non-disclosure, and other types of film-related agreements”—to ask who the producers, financiers, or distributors are, to screen vendors and suppliers, to make sure the boycott is “enshrined into the legal contracts we commonly use in the film industry.” They are even advised to add confidentiality clauses to their contracts to hide the scheme.
Such discrimination against Jewish Israeli individuals or institutions based on their race, ethnicity, shared ancestry, creed or national origin is illegal. That’s why the Brandeis Center – a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the civil and human rights of Jewish individuals – sent letters this week to major U.S. film industry organizations, including studios, talent agencies, film festivals, and others, to caution them of the numerous ways that this boycott breaks state and federal non-discrimination laws. These letters warned organizations not to silence, boycott, or blacklist Israeli entertainment institutions, as it would open them up to legal liability.
The federal Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibits refusing to contract with Jews and Jewish-owned businesses — including those owned by Jewish Israelis operating in the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination by federally funded arts and cultural organizations and in employment. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act, as well as New York’s Human Rights Law and Civil Rights Law, forbid discrimination in contracting, employment, and public accommodations based on race, ethnicity, shared ancestry, creed or national origin. And both New York and California specifically outlaw discriminatory boycotts and blacklists.
The “Hollywood Blacklist” is not just shameful. It exposes those who enforce it—and those who aid, incite, or coerce others to participate — to real legal liability.
Hollywood should know better. The last blacklist—the McCarthy era destruction of careers and lives during the 1940s and 1950s – ended in disgrace, with many participants haunted by their choices for the rest of their lives. This one will too. The only question is whether the industry will repeat its worst history—or have the courage to reject it now.
The bottom line is this: participating in the latest Hollywood Blacklist, this time targeting Jewish Israelis for discrimination, is illegal. We would prefer to see you on the screen, and not in court.
Rory Lancman is Senior Counsel at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
