We Can't Support Women and Apartheid at the Same Time

We, Bechdel Project, as an arts organization committed to gender equity and guided by intersectional feminist principles, endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) call and affirm our support for and commitment to the growing international movement for Palestinian rights and for justice, equality, and freedom for all.

Bechdel Project believes that stories don’t just reflect our culture - they shape our culture, challenge oppressive systems, and imagine a more just world. Through our work, we support feminist storytellers whose narratives illuminate lived experiences and expose the ways systemic oppression, particularly against women, is deeply entrenched in societies worldwide. Women, especially those from marginalized communities, disproportionately bear the burden of systemic violence, economic injustice, and state-sanctioned repression. From gender-based violence to economic disenfranchisement, from displacement to the suppression of their voices, women experience global injustice in ways that demand urgent redress.

Bechdel Project is dedicated to creating a cultural landscape that prioritizes equity, amplifies marginalized voices, and actively resists systemic oppression. In alignment with our mission to support feminist storytellers, we recognize the interconnectedness of all struggles for justice, including the fight against settler-colonialism and apartheid. The fight for gender equity cannot be separated from the fight for racial, social, and economic justice.

Israel’s occupation and apartheid system disproportionately impact Palestinian women and girls, subjecting them to military violence, restricted access to healthcare and education, and economic marginalization. We cannot ignore these realities, just as we cannot ignore the injustices faced by all oppressed peoples.

We refuse to be complicit in a culture of impunity. As an organization committed to fostering spaces free from oppression, violence, racism, and discrimination in all its forms, we recognize that solidarity is an action, not just a belief.

As PACBI endorsers:

• We refuse to participate in any kind of cultural event organized in apartheid Israel.

• We refuse to participate in any kind of cultural event organized with the support of complicit Israeli private or public institutions or Israeli lobby groups.

• We refuse to engage in the normalization of relations with a regime of oppression, dispossession, and racism.

• We reject funding and any form of sponsorship from the Israeli government, complicit Israeli public institutions, or Israeli lobby groups for the development of our cultural activities.

We recognize that all struggles for social, racial, gender, and economic justice and for self-determination are deeply interconnected. Decolonization must be at the core of our collective work, and we stand in transnational solidarity with Palestinian artists, cultural workers, and all those resisting oppression.

The BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, or religion) or opinion. Mere affiliation of Israeli cultural workers with an Israeli cultural institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott. However, if an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to “rebrand” itself, then their activities are subject to the institutional boycott the BDS movement is calling for.

Bechdel Project stands on the right side of history, recognizing that arts and culture are tools for collective liberation, not complicity in apartheid. We will continue using our platform to champion feminist storytelling, justice, and decolonization, ensuring that our work remains aligned with our values of equity and liberation for all.