Update: A newer version of this article, updated throughout, can be found here. It reports on the Festival’s statement apologizing for the controversy and that it will review its processes, along with reactions from the Consulate and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
The Israeli Consulate in Atlanta announced on Feb. 20 that it had pulled its funding and support from the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival because the festival is retaining a student juror “who has publicly shared antisemitic and anti-Israel content.”
The 26th annual festival opened on Feb. 18 and runs through March 3 in theaters, then streams from March 6 to 15. The festival includes 49 features, 16 short films, three world premieres and 20 countries represented.
The Consulate did not name the juror, who is one of three judging the Human Rights category. In addition to the social media posts, the Consulate said there is “substantial evidence of this person’s participation in at least one anti-Israel university encampment in Atlanta, putting Jewish students at risk and promoting dangerous misinformation about the war in Gaza started by Hamas on October 7, 2023.”
The Consulate stated that they informed the festival leadership team, which “chose to allow this juror to continue judging the Human Rights category.”
Anwar Karim, a senior at Morehouse College, was announced as one of the judges in the Human Rights category on Feb. 9. Raised in northern Virginia, he is majoring in cinema, television and emerging media studies, and is part of the third class of Spike Lee Fellows at the Gersh Agency. He is also acting president of the Morehouse Muslim Student Association.
The festival released a statement later in the day on Feb. 20 that said they were made aware of “certain publicly available social media activity” and reviewed it “to ensure our approach remained consistent with our mission and the expectations of jury service.” After the review, “we concluded that the student could participate appropriately within the structure of our deliberations.”
According to the festival, which also did not name Karim, he was selected “through a standard process” that included faculty nomination and an interview, “and was invited to participate based on a strong recommendation, academic focus, engagement with film, and demonstrated interest in bridge building through storytelling.”
The festival emphasized its mission of bridge-building across a space where those “with differing perspectives can engage constructively and respectfully, grounded in thoughtful exchange and learning.”
The consulate said “providing a credible platform within the Jewish community to someone who has engaged in the spread of misinformation and antisemitic rhetoric undermines the integrity of the festival and should disqualify them from participating in any aspect of the related events.”
While the Consulate has regarded the festival as “an important cultural platform that celebrates Jewish creativity and strengthens the bonds between Israel and the Jewish community in the region,” as representatives of Israel “we cannot normalize the inclusion of individuals who take an active role in attempting to delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state.”
In its response, the festival regretted the break in the “longstanding relationship” with the Consulate and “we remain open to continued dialogue.”
The festival’s statement concluded, “We remain deeply committed to Jewish cultural life and to serving our community with care and integrity. We value the voices of our community and will continue to listen thoughtfully as we move forward.”
Cheryl Dorchinsky, head of the Atlanta Israel Coalition, said “providing institutional credibility within the Jewish community to individuals who actively work to delegitimize the State of Israel does not foster dialogue or build bridges. It rewards hostility.”
She added, “dialogue requires mutual respect. It cannot coexist with rhetoric that dehumanizes Israelis and spreads misinformation that fuels hatred and, ultimately, violence.”
Accusations of gleeful genocide
On his Instagram, Karim has numerous videos of social commentary on a range of topics, criticizing racism and capitalism, among other issues, with him doing rap-style poetry, often interspersed with clips illustrating what he is opposing.
On Feb. 18, 2024, he posted a video of his poem “Devil’s Work,” “addressing the evils of this world that contribute to injustice of the past and present.” Roughly half of it has to do with Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, with mentions of Sudan and racism in the U.S.
Early in the video, he shows images from the Holocaust mixed with testimony from Israel’s defense at the International Court of Justice. As the Israeli representative talks about how the charge of genocide against Israel turns memory of the Holocaust into “a weapon in the hands of terrorist groups who have no regard for humanity or for the law,” that quote is backed instead with images of Israeli soldiers controlling large numbers of shirtless Palestinian men that they captured early in the war. Shirts are removed to ensure nobody is hiding a suicide vest or belt.
In the video, Karim calls out “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
After referencing the Trail of Tears against Native Americans, he turn to Gaza again, saying “babies being killed after having no access to meals and the leaders of Israel saying let them die, how you step aside and let it fly, when you see this genocide that’s been going on for years like (seventy-five) and the fast spread of lies is only on the rise Israel said they settled now just colonized.”
A black-and-white video of an Israeli spokesman asserting “Israel is not restricting the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza” has videotape time stamps purporting to be from 1948, with the caption “war criminal.”
Karim also says “step onto your porch, women men and children being murdered just for sport, but remember when in court they took your land by force… how dare they use the star to justify the occupation.”
A 1980s Nancy Reagan “just say no” clip regarding drugs and those who think it isn’t their problem had the words “Palestinian” and “genocide” added.
He displays the widely-debunked series of maps showing “shrinking Palestine” and comments about 1947 being a theft of land against the Palestinians. “If you had to steal that, understand it’s not a national homeland, how you show that romance. What’s a Zionist, a white supremacist trying to pose as a nomad.”
On May 30, 2024, the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations distributed a video of him doing a segment of his poem, “Invincible Faith,” for the organization. In it, he accuses the world of ignoring Israel’s actions, saying “if their so-called savior was born today rubble and remains would for sure replace the space where Miriam’s son once would lay, the present bears no gifts except the loose leaf that drifts and then warns about the incoming bombing campaign that leaves entire fams slain.”
He added, “these monsters remain unresponsive unless the money is talking. Ironic how they poke at our Beloved Prophet. It’s like they pop champagne each time they erase a last name as they continue to contribute to indigenous mass pain, complete only when they eliminate the graves.”
He said Palestinians are living an apartheid existence where “the cold blooded killers invade with AK sticking your face or famish the thinnest of babes… the world said never again and then witnessed the same tragedy travesty and agony from a villainous state whose siege proceeds as our tax dollars are given away.”
He then chants in Arabic, “Labaik Ya Aqsa,” which is a statement of service to the al-Aqsa complex in Jerusalem. Hamas named its October 7 operation the al-Aqsa Flood, and many Arab uprisings, including Oct. 7, have begun with accusations of the Jews trying to take over or destroy the mosque.
Karim has not yet responded to a request for comment.
