KOREN: TIFF’s shameful erasure of the Israeli perspective

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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has long prided itself on being one of the world’s premier cultural events — an institution that champions artistic integrity, fearless storytelling, and the exchange of ideas. This week, it abandoned all of that.

TIFF quietly dropped The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue from its lineup. The documentary, by Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich, tells the harrowing true story of Noam Tibon, who drove from Tel Aviv to Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7 to rescue his son and two young granddaughters trapped in a safe room while Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern Israel — murdering, raping, and kidnapping civilians. These atrocities were proudly recorded by the terrorists themselves, often on GoPros, and broadcast for the world to see.

The film is not propaganda. It is not even political. It is a deeply human story about courage, family, and survival in the face of unimaginable evil. By any honest standard, it belongs at TIFF.

After public criticism, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey apologized and said he would explore ways to reinstate the film. That’s welcome — but it only underscores how quickly the festival’s first instinct was to sideline the Israeli perspective, and how reluctant it remains to defend that perspective on principle.

The official reason for the removal? Copyright concerns. According to the festival, the filmmakers did not have permission to use some of the October 7 footage. In other words, TIFF is faulting them for not obtaining a release form from Hamas terrorists. This is not just absurd — it is shameful.

The decision is also a betrayal of TIFF’s own stated mission: To “enlighten, enrich understanding, and foster empathy.” How can you foster empathy while erasing an entire perspective from the public square?

Let’s be clear about what is happening. TIFF is not just avoiding controversy; it is preemptively silencing the Israeli narrative. The festival is operating on the same three principles adopted by Arab leaders at the Khartoum Conference of 1967: No peace, no recognition, no negotiations. The anti-Israel movement in the West has embraced these principles more rigidly than many Arab states themselves. And now, TIFF has chosen to comply — whether out of fear, convenience, or both.

This is not an isolated act. Across North America and Europe, the Israeli perspective is being pushed out of cultural spaces. Plays cancelled. Exhibits pulled. Speakers shouted down. Filmmakers told to find another platform. The goal is not debate — it is erasure.

The irony is that Israel’s enemies often claim they want dialogue, “critical conversations,” and “multiple narratives.” But in practice, their position is simple: The Israeli narrative has no right to exist. It must be excluded, shamed and buried. And the more violent and disruptive the threats, the faster institutions fold.

TIFF’s decision comes at a perilous time. Canada is moving toward recognizing a Palestinian state, even as Hamas openly calls on supporters to escalate violence worldwide. In recent months, Jewish Canadians have been assaulted in Victoria, Montreal, and Saint John. Synagogues, schools, and businesses have been vandalized. The message from extremists is unmistakable: There is no place for Jews — physically or narratively — in public life.

By caving to that pressure, TIFF has sent a chilling message to Toronto’s Jewish community, which has played an integral role in the festival’s history: Your stories are not safe here.

This is more than a snub to one filmmaker. It is a test of whether our cultural institutions have the courage to live up to their own values. TIFF’s choice makes the answer clear: When forced to choose between artistic integrity and political convenience, it will choose convenience every time.

There was a time when film festivals understood their role. They were guardians of expression, even when the stories they screened were uncomfortable or unpopular. They believed audiences were capable of engaging with difficult truths. They knew that empathy cannot be selective — that the whole point of art is to bridge human experience, not narrow it.

By uninviting The Road Between Us, TIFF has failed that role. It has told the world that the Israeli perspective is too dangerous to be shown — not because it is false, but because it might make some people uncomfortable. That is not integrity. It is capitulation.

And it will not end here. If the precedent stands, it will be easier to erase the next Israeli story, and the one after that, until an entire people’s lived experience is absent from our cultural record. That is how erasure works — not with one grand act of censorship, but with a thousand small acts of cowardice.

TIFF now has a second chance. It can follow through on the CEO’s apology and reinstate the film, standing by the principle that art is for everyone — not just those with the loudest, angriest voices. To do otherwise is to abandon the very foundation of artistic freedom.

There is still time for TIFF to prove it has the courage to live by its mission. But every day it delays, the damage grows — not just to its reputation, but to the cultural fabric of this city. Because if a film about a grandfather rescuing his family from terrorists can’t be shown at a festival supposedly dedicated to truth and empathy, then TIFF is no longer a festival. It’s a filter.

And the stories it filters out are the ones we most need to see.

— Daniel Koren is the Founder and Executive Director of Allied Voices for Israel