Signees, including Debra Messing, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nancy Spielberg, accuse The Zone of Interest director of fuelling ‘a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world’
On Monday, more than 450 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing The Zone of Interest director’s speech, in which he renounced his “Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people”.
The statement continued: “The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history. It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood.
“His aim was not to descend to the level of political discourse. Critics who expected a clear political stance or a film solely about genocide did not grasp the depth of his message.” Meanwhile Brett Gelman, the Fleabag and Stranger Things actor also took issue with the decision by stars such as Ruffalo and Billie Eilish to wear an Artists4Ceasefire pin. “There was no concern for how Jewish people are going to react to a speech like that, to that applause, to those red pins, when not even our hostages are being mentioned, and it’s just incredibly hurtful, incredibly painful. It’s truly baffling to me that people were choosing to be silent that night.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that this was a Hamas rally. Where was the audience? People should have gotten up and booed because he left the Academy Awards thinking this was fine.”We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.
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