LGBTQ activist Julia Layani posted a long message on Instagram to denounce her exclusion as a member of the jury of the “Chéries-Chéris” film festival, after sharing with her counterparts her wish to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on stage . She denounces an “anti-Semitic” attack.
“Our society is sick.” Julia Layani, an LGBTQ activist, was one of the jurors of the “Chéries-Chéris” film festival, which was held from Friday November 15 to Tuesday November 26 in different rooms of the mk2 cinemas in Paris. This Wednesday, she pointed out on Instagram her exclusion from the jury of the LGBTQ festival because she planned to raise on stage the cause of the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the terrorist group Hamas.
“Our society is sick. I was a victim of this last night (Tuesday November 26). Victim. However, I promised myself never to be,” wrote the young woman on the social network. In her testimony, she explains having been approached by a person she did not know to warn her that an article to dismiss her from the jury of the “Chéries-Chéris” film festival was going to be published. This anonymous column, signed by 12 jurors, identified Julia Layani as a “far-right Zionist”.
“The shock is such when faced with the association of these two terms. Why me?”, the young woman wondered. “What does this conflict that I never talk about have to do with an argument aimed at kicking me out of an LGBT festival? What is the indicator of my Zionism, since I never mention it? (…) And then, this mention of the extreme right, what is it doing there?”, she asked. The activist therefore decided to ignore the platform regarding her and continued her work within the framework of the festival, while participating in the events scheduled for the members of the jury. “I don’t want to make waves, (…) I especially don’t want to victimize myself,” she clarified on Instagram. But during the price deliberation dinner, at which she was present, the situation escalated.
“During the dinner, one of the jurors, once again sympathetic, said this sentence: 'If there are Zionists in the film crews, it would be good to know,'” recalled the activist, explaining that she did not react to this provocation. “No doubt out of astonishment, but above all out of habit,” she confided. Following this event, Julia Layani understood that she was being accused of having interviewed in her podcast entitled “Conversation before the end of the world” the essayist Caroline Fourest, whose positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are often discussed.
“I am a victim of anti-Semitism but I have no right to say it”
On the day of the closing ceremony of the festival, which was held on Tuesday November 26 at the mk2 Bibliothèque cinema, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Julia Layani received an email in which the members of the jury affirmed their desire to speak on stage the contemporary geopolitical situation, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon. The young woman then responded to the email, indicating her desire to mention the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip. “No response,” lamented the activist on the social network.
The closing ceremony started, Julia Layani, who was still unanswered, was enlightened by one of the members of the jury. The latter reportedly explained to him that “the group does not want to add Israeli hostages to the text (…) because that is not the subject.” The young woman then denounced being a victim of anti-Semitism. Comments deemed “dangerous” by his interlocutor. “I am a victim of anti-Semitism but I have no right to say it,” the activist recalled in her publication on Instagram.
Nevertheless, Julia Layani took the stage of the mk2 Bibliothèque without having been invited. She told the audience that she was “very moved” after having suffered “something extremely violent”. “I am of Jewish faith. This might bother some people. (…) The group that you have just seen in front of you refused to allow me to mention the 101 hostages who are still in Gaza. We walk on our heads. I will never stop, no offense, creating projects for LGBT people and for all those who hate me and who don't want to see me here, I will be there, I will be on all your screens and for a long time. An intervention applauded by the public.
Thursday, November 28, the management of the mk2 cinematography group shared in a press release “its amazement and shock” after the “pressure and positions taken by other members of the jury” denounced by Julia Layani. The group affirmed that “the actions described by (the activist) have and will have no place at mk2”, providing its support to the LGBT activist and assuring that “mk2 defends and will always defend the plurality of points of view “.
A press release welcomed on
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