Ginnie Atkinson, Managing Director of the Edinburgh International
Film Festival (EIFF) has confirmed that EIFF will not be taking Israeli
Embassy money to help fund the 2009 film festival. Atkinson was unwilling
to admit EIFF was influenced by Scottish PSC, or by the protest emails
the EIFF received, and said that the decision was “a natural
conclusion to having realised that we had made a mistake in the first
place”. Their decision follows the Scottish PSC call earlier
today for a protest outside the Filmhouse in Edinburgh where the EIFF
is based. Mention of the Israeli Embassy on the EIFF’s ‘Honour
Board’ was removed after Atkinson and the EIFF admitted that “it
was a mistake to accept the £300 from the Israeli Embassy”.