Protest mounts against TIFF's Tel Aviv program

A group of actors, authors, musicians and activists is circulating a letter of protest about a special program at the Toronto International Film Festival focusing on Tel Aviv.

The letter, which has been endorsed by the likes of Naomi Klein, Jane Fonda, David Byrne and Danny Glover, suggests festival organizers have been complicit with "the Israeli propaganda machine" by planning to screen the 10 films without any balancing Palestinian narratives in the program.

In a statement posted on the festival website, co-director Cameron Bailey says the new City to City program was conceived and curated independently without pressure from any outside sources.

Bailey says he encouraged the protest group to view the films in the program before passing judgment but his offer was refused.

But the group says it has seen some of the films and it's not rallying against the work of the Israeli filmmakers.

One member of the group, John Greyson, has pulled his film Covered from the festival as an act of protest, which he said was an extremely difficult decision to make.

"[The festival] has emphatically taken sides and in the process, forced every filmmaker and audience member who opposes the occupation to cross a type of picket line," he wrote in a letter to festival organizers.

Bailey responded with a statement on the festival website defending the program, although he acknowledged that "Tel Aviv is not a simple choice and that the city remains contested ground."

"As a festival that values debate and the exchange of cultures, we will continue to screen the best films we can find from around the world," he said. "This is our contribution to expanding our audiences' experience of this art form and the worlds it represents."