During the Oscars show (which, mercifully, I did not bother to watch), jonathan glazer – who won Best International Film of The Year for “The Zone of Interest”, an Auschwitz-based drama -used his “thank-you” time to instead attack Israel – including this segment:
“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October — whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
Occupation? Does he mean the invasion of Gaza, which took place only after its unelected leadership, hamas, declared war on Israel by attacking and killing 1,200 – 1,400 people, taking about 250 others hostage (and committing unthinkably barbaric tortures on them), then proudly announcing their intent to do it again and again?
Israel wasn’t “occupying” Gaza until then – not one square inch of it. In fact, Gaza became an independent territory only because Israel gave it to the population living there in 2005 (how has that worked out?)
Or does glazer’s “occupation” comment relate to the land of sovereign Israel – which was created as a secular state by the United Nations in 1948 (when the UN was still worth a damn), but, in one form or another, was a Jewish homeland for over 57 centuries before that – thus over 40 centuries before Islam even existed?
In any event, an open letter was written to address glazer’s ignorance…and has been signed, so far, by over 400 Hollywood people (presumably, with more to come).
Here it is:
STATEMENT FROM JEWISH HOLLYWOOD PROFESSIONALS
We are Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals.
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.
Every civilian death in Gaza is tragic. Israel is not targeting civilians. It is targeting Hamas. The moment Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders, is the moment this heartbreaking war ends. This has been true since the Hamas attacks of October 7th.
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. The current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State of Israel, a place which will always take us in, as no state did during the Holocaust depicted in Mr. Glazer’s film.
Who is making more sense here?
I’ll let you decide. You already know what I think.
