French filmmaker Jean-luc Godard has withdrawn from a film festival in Israel, after a Palestinian group asked him to boycott the country. The director was due to attend the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, but backed out citing "circumstances beyond his control", according to organisers. The move follows an open letter to Godard issued last week (ends30May08) by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. It asked him to "take a courageous stand and cancel your trip to Israel. Did you ever go to an Afrikaner film festival in apartheid South Africa? Why Israel then?" Godard has refused to confirm a link between the letter and his withdrawal.
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