Pedro Almodóvar asks the government to "break relations with Israel"

Film director Pedro Almodóvar (Calzada de Calatrava, 75) has posted a video on the Instagram account of his production company, El Deseo, calling on the government to sever relations with Israel. “I ask our government to sever diplomatic, commercial, and all other relations with the State of Israel in protest of the genocide it is carrying out on the Gazan people in full view of the entire world. I also ask our president to try to convince all our European allies to do the same and join in this condemnation.”

With a serious expression, apparently reading the message and in a short video, the director of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown makes this statement as part of the #AccionesYa campaign, which Almodóvar has launched with the intention of allowing people to ask questions or make requests to end genocide and demonstrate against it.

The director encouraged people to join the initiative: "If you also have a question or request to make, record yourself, use the hashtag #AccionesYa and tag @artistasconpalestina."

This isn't the first time Almodóvar has expressed his opinion on this issue. In June, he was one of 1,700 cultural figures who signed a petition calling for peace in Gaza. "We urgently call for an immediate end to the massacre in Gaza" and an "active arms embargo on Israel." The statement read: "The civilian population is being bombed in Gaza; tens of thousands of children are being killed, mutilated, and subjected to trauma that will forever mark their lives. Ambulances, hospitals, schools, and shelters have become military targets. Journalists, aid workers, and medical personnel are being murdered, and access to humanitarian aid is being impeded, sometimes through violence, subjecting the population to hunger and lack of medical care."

Among the signatories were Almudena Carracedo, Carlos Bardem, Fernando León, Montxo Armendáriz, Puy Oria, Patricia de Muns, Fernando Colomo, Fernando Méndez-Leite, Felipe Vega, Pepe Viyuela , María Barranco, Ana Wagener, Javier Fesser, Juanjo Puigcorbé, Cristina Andreu, Lola Marceli, Nieves de Medina, Pepón Nieto, Lola Salvador, Cecilia Bartolomé, Elena Manrique or Vicky Peña, Iñaki Gabilondo, Sandra Sabatés, Julio Ruiz, Carlos del Amor, Berna G. Harbor, Paul Preston, Juan Gómez Jurado, Marwán, Conchi Cascajosa, Rosa Montero, Juan Luis Cano or Pedro Almodóvar.