Dozens of filmmakers, artists and activists, including actress Jane Fonda and musician David Byrne, have signed on to a campaign denouncing the Toronto International Film Festival for celebrating the films of Tel Aviv and Israeli culture.

A core group of largely Toronto-based Jewish filmmakers is accusing the festival of playing into “the Israeli propaganda machine” with its inaugural “City to City” program, which excludes Palestinian voices from the 10-film program.

“The most disturbing part about this is there was no consultation with the community, there was also no sensitivity to the way that this issue affects many people in the community,” said filmmaker Kathy Wazana.

“In terms of what we would want [the festival] to do is to respond... perhaps [with] some apology to the people who have been offended by this, or [make] some commitment to future consultation with community before deciding on programs that focus on issues that are hot topics.”

The group is circulating a letter of protest and has drawn more than 50 signatures from artists around the world including American writer Alice Walker, Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein, U.K. filmmaker Ken Loach and American actor Danny Glover.

“Looking at modern, sophisticated Tel Aviv without also considering the city’s past and the realities of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip would be like rhapsodizing about the beauty and elegant lifestyles in white-only Cape Town or Johannesburg during apartheid without acknowledging the corresponding black townships of Khayelitsha and Soweto,” the letter states.

The letter goes on to accuse the festival of being unduly influenced by the Israeli government’s year-long Brand Israel campaign, which it said is geared towards sanitizing Israel’s controversial political and military history.

It also links the Royal Ontario Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit to the Brand Israel campaign.

Festival co-director Cameron Bailey responded with a statement defending the program, although he acknowledged “Tel Aviv is not a simple choice and that the city remains contested ground.”

Toronto-based filmmaker John Greyson pulled his film Covered from the festival in protest. In a letter to festival organizers, he said it was a difficult decision to make and raised questions about “City to City’s” origins, funding, programming and sponsors.

“To my mind, this isn’t the right year to celebrate Brand Israel, or to demonstrate an ostrich-like indifference to the realities of the region,” said Greyson, who is helping to organize a screening this month for the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival.