Statement by XPOSED Queer Film Festival on Palestine-Israel

We are organising this year’s festival in highly politicised times and we would like to clarify our positions and the philosophy that we stand for.

On many occasions in the past months, accusations of anti-Semitism have been used as a justification for the German government and cultural institutions to threaten and silence anti-war perspectives – many of them coming from people of colour, migrants, foreigners, students, artists and queer and trans* people, like us. We especially disagree with the crackdown on and silencing of Palestinian and Jewish voices under the disguise of fighting anti-Semitism.

While we receive public funding for XPOSED, we are not a public institution. As an independent queer film festival, we are going to uphold freedom of artistic expressions and a space for dissent and political voices. While we do not need to agree on everything in order to come together, we refuse to censor ourselves from our responsibility as a festival, towards our audience or invited filmmakers, even if the conversations we need to have are difficult and painful.

We reject militarism, anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism in all their forms. We are deeply disturbed by the violence and the atrocities committed against civilians in occupied Palestine and Israel. We demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and negotiations for just and definitive peace and justice – for Palestinians and Israelis alike.