Thousands of pro-Palestinian activists have descended on the Venice Film Festival this evening.
Chants of ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ were heard as the group of around 5,000 marched down the street waving flags and banners which read ‘Stop Starving Gaza’.
As they neared the film festival, which is the world’s oldest, Italian police deployed a cordon to keep the demonstrators away from the Frankenstein premiere where celebrities had been walking the red carpet.
Since it began on August 27, a catalogue of A-list stars have jetted to northern Italy for the festival including Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Kim Kardashian.
However, Israeli actress Gal Gadot has been a notable absence, despite her upcoming film with co-star Gerard Butler, In The Hand of Dante, premiering at the event.
The Daily Mail reported yesterday that it was feared both Gadot and Butler could act as a ‘lightning rod’ for protests against Israel’s military offensive into Gaza – given their perceived support of Netanyahu’s regime.
Demonstrators arrived wielding megaphones tonight despite the actors’ absences, but found themselves drowned out by the noise of paparazzi and celebrity commotion at the premiere.
There has been a heavy security presence at this year’s festival in anticipation for such protests, with a ring of steel erected around the collection of cinemas at the centre of the festival.
Body scanners, bag checks and security passes are also being used to monitor delegates and ticket holders until it ends on September 6.
Pressure group Artists 4 Palestine had demanded that festival organisers withdrew invitations from both Gadot and Butler ‘along with any artist and celebrity who publicly and actively supports genocide.’
Venice Film Festival boss Alberto Barbero confirmed this week that the actress is not coming to Venice, but said that Gadot and Butler’s invitations were not revoked.
‘The position of the Biennale is on the one hand we are an Italian cultural institution, a place of openness and debate that does not censor anybody,’ Mr Barbero said.
‘We’ve been asked to turn down invitations to artists – we will not do that, if they want to be here they will be here.
‘On the other hand we have never hesitated to clearly declare our huge sadness and suffering vis-a-vis what is happening in Gaza and Palestine.
‘The death of civilians and especially children who are victims – they are the collateral damage of a war nobody has been able to terminate yet.’
Isabella De Monte, Forza Italia MP and deputy head of the party’s Foreign Affairs Department, said: ‘Dialogue and a plurality of ideas are the main tools that culture deploys to overcome sectarianism.
‘It’s good that Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco emphasized this to the 1,500 artists who were calling for a boycott of Gal Gadot and her film with Gerard Butler.
‘A reckless protest, because in the eyes of those protesting, Gadot’s only crime is being Israeli. The Venice Film Festival deserves respect.’
The conflict appears to be continually dividing Hollywood and the wider film industry.
Brad Pitt is among those who have taken on executive producer roles on the Gaza drama, The Voice of Hind Rajab, which is also premiering in Venice.
Directed by Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania with actors Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara also executive producing, the film tells the story of a young Palestinian girl – Hind Rajab – who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year along with six of her family members when they were fleeing Gaza City.
Rajab and another cousin initially survived and contacted the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) by phone from the car seeking aid, but she was dead by the time paramedics came to help.