Pro-Palestine protestors showed up at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, bearing signs that read “Zionism is a death machine” and “the media buries the truth.”
Organizers told Variety their intent is to “educate and motivate the film industry to do a better job of exploring the full humanity of Palestinian life rather than relying on cartoony characters and cliche plot lines.”
The protests were organized by members of Health Care Workers for Palestine, Arabs in Utah, Armed Queers and Salt Lake Artists Against Genocide. The outlet reported feature speaker Dalia Salum criticized the media, who Salum said helps to “perpetuate lies and spread misinformation about the reality on the ground.”
“[The] media should hold the values of accuracy, of independence, of impartiality, of humanity, of accountability. Why do you forget to tell the truth?” Salum asked. “Why do you twist and turn so that we can see your puppet strings as conglomerations like AIPAC, like the ADL, like the JNF [Jewish Funders Network] pull your little puppet strings.”
Salum also refused to speak to any media at the festival.
Mishandi Sarhan, also a featured speaker, told the outlet that making their protest about President Trump is not a goal.
“We haven’t mentioned Trump specifically because most of the protests around the nation right now are focusing on Trump,” she said. “We recognize that the government is not the only thing that is helping genocide. Other protests are focusing more on the government. We really want to bring attention to the media specifically, because the media is generally complicit when it comes to genocide. They don’t report it as a genocide. The media holds itself as like a beacon of truth, and that’s not the case.”
The protest comes on the same day that four Israeli hostages were released from Gaza by Hamas. The young women — all between the ages of 19 and 20 — were held for more than 470 days. Emotional footage of Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag being reunited with their families was shared online by Israeli author Hen Mazzig.
The four women were among several lookouts who were kidnapped from the Nahal Oz outpost on October 7, 2023. Israeli news outlet Ynet reported their mothers were especially vocal members of the Mother’s Protest, also known was Watch 101.
Despite the successful handover, Israel has since accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire agreement in place after the terrorist organization failed to return civilian hostage Arbel Yehud. Israel announced the country will in return delay the ability of Palestinians to return to what is left of their homes in northern Gaza. Hamas has said Yehud will be returned next week.
Also today 200 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons to the West Bank, where celebrations were held upon their return.
The first stage of the ceasefire deal struck after months of negotiations between Egypt, Qatar and the United States will bring freedom to 33 hostages over six weeks.
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