The introduction of a new ‘Cities’ sidebar focusing on Tel Aviv provoked a fierce, divisive and highly public controversy at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Sponsored by the Israeli government's Brand Israel campaign, the sidebar featured ten films set in Israel's administrative capital and, while none of the films was, in itself, especially controversial, the premiss – that a major international film festival would accept money directly from an Israeli government eager to promote an alternative media image to the one associated with their nation's long and controversial involvement in Palestine – elicited an angry response from a number of public figures. Endorsing what became known as the ‘Toronto Declaration’, the signatories, including Frederic Jameson, Naomi Klein, Ken Loach and Slavoj Žižek, argued that the celebration of Tel Aviv was inappropriate given Israel's widely condemned actions in the Occupied Territories, particularly the invasion of Gaza in December 2008. The Declaration stated:

As members of the Canadian and international film, culture and media arts communities, we are deeply disturbed by the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to host a celebratory spotlight on Tel Aviv. We protest that TIFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine.1

In response, a group of filmmakers voiced support for the festival organizers and accused their opponents of promoting both censorship and antisemitism.