Warner Bros. joins Paramount in rejecting Hollywood boycott of Israeli filmmakers

Warner Bros.: “Our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, or ancestry.”

By Jewish Breaking News

A campaign to turn Israeli filmmakers into Hollywood pariahs is hitting a corporate wall after Warner Bros.

Discovery became the second major studio to publicly reject a growing industry-backed boycott of Israeli film institutions.

The boycott, launched in mid-September by “Film Workers for Palestine,” has attracted more than 4,000 signatures from actors, directors, and producers including Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, Emma Stone, and Mark Ruffalo. The signatories are urging film workers to “refuse collaboration” with Israeli festivals, studios, and state-funded bodies accused of “complicity in Gaza’s destruction.”

Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate that owns HBO, CNN, DC Studios, and Discovery Channel, said such a move violates its internal code of conduct.

“Our policies prohibit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, or ancestry,” the company tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We believe a boycott of Israeli film institutions violates our policies.”

The studio added that while it respects the rights of artists to speak out, it will continue to align its business practices with company policy and the law.

Paramount Global, which denounced the campaign last week, said silencing filmmakers “based on nationality” undermines the very idea of artistic freedom.

“At Paramount, we believe in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share,” the company said in a statement. “We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”

Meanwhile, pro-Israel advocacy group “Creative Community for Peace” has rallied more than 1,200 signatories, including Liev Schreiber, Debra Messing, and Mayim Bialik, to issue a public rebuttal. Their open letter calls the campaign “a document of misinformation” and questioned how the pledge’s organizers decide which Israeli institutions are “complicit,” calling the standard vague and politically charged.

Legal experts have also questioned whether Film Workers for Palestine is breaching Equality Act protections that forbid discrimination based on national origin.