In the world of the arts, the Orwellian redefinition of “free speech” to mean “forced speech” is having quite the moment.

The author Arundhati Roy is boycotting the Berlinale film festival because organizers have suggested that artists should not be compelled to talk about politics. This would seem to be unobjectionable: free speech should also apply to artists who don’t want to let reporters troll them into a political controversy, especially at a gathering meant to display the art itself.

The controversy began on the first day of the Berlinale, when jury President Wim Wenders responded to the accusation that the film festival is institutionally pro-genocide because it does not position itself against Israel. “We are the counterweight of politics,” Wenders said, “the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians.”

Roy exploded. “To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time — when artists, writers and film-makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”

Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle then explained that that is obviously not an accurate description of the film festival: “There are 278 films in this year’s program… There are films about genocide, about sexual violence in war, about corruption, about patriarchal violence, about colonialism or abusive state power.” Some of the filmmakers at Berlinale “may face prison, exile, and even death for the work they have made or the positions they have taken. They come to Berlin and share their work with courage. This is happening now.”

The festival’s perspective is very simple, Tuttle said: “Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose.”

Sounds like a good policy. But it was bound to only further antagonize the celebrities who agree with Roy. A group of 81 actors and other festival participants—among them Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem—signed an open letter hitting back at the Berlinale and making clear what this fight is really about: “Berlinale has so far not even met the demands of its community to issue a statement that affirms the Palestinian” narrative of the war, the statement complained. More to the point, the letter warned: “The tide is changing across the international film world. Many international film festivals have endorsed the cultural boycott of apartheid Israel.”

Ah, there we are. Actors want an anti-Jewish blacklist. In the name of free speech and anti-fascism. And they want Germany to lead the way. The open letter claims that the world is living a re-run of the 1930s, but the real complaint is that it’s not enough like the 1930s for Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton.

It is simply a matter of public record that, as we have documented repeatedly, the artists being silenced over politics are Jews and Israelis, while performers who have made anti-Zionism their entire personality have received a boost in their public standing. The Toronto International Film Festival tried—and initially succeeded—to cut a film about an Israeli hero on October 7. Jewish writers are being iced out of the publishing industry while anti-Israel polemics get published no matter the content or quality.

None of this is in dispute, because such discrimination is what is meant by “free speech” as expressed by the vapid celebrities who traffic in blood libels about the Jewish state. Gal Gadot faces pressure to avoid film festivals; Javier Bardem shows up to awards shows wearing a Palestinian Purim costume and he does not worry that he’s going to be “punished” or “suppressed” for it.

The folks advocating for blacklists have somehow positioned themselves as the leading “free speech” voices of our time. And the Sovietization of global anti-Israel discourse marches on.