LONDON: At least 450 Jewish figures in Hollywood condemned on Monday the Oscars acceptance speech of British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer for comparing Israel’s onslaught on Gaza to the Nazi treatment of Jews.
Glazer, whose film “The Zone of Interest” scooped the award for best international feature, said as he accepted the prize at the ceremony earlier this month that his film showed “where dehumanization leads at its worst.”
He added: “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 the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”
The statement prompted more than 450 Jewish creatives, executives, and Hollywood professionals, including actress Debra Messing and director Eli Roth, to denounce the Jewish director’s speech in an open letter shared by Variety.
The letter said: “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.”
While highlighting that “every civilian death in Gaza is tragic,” the signatories defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “targeting Hamas.”
The letter also claimed Glazer’s statement “gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world.”
Co-produced between the UK and Poland, “The Zone of Interest” is a historical drama that explores the horrors of the Holocaust through the life of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss, who lived with his wife in a home close to the Nazi concentration camp.
On Oct. 7, Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 others hostage. In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip, killing so far more than 31,000 Palestinians, of whom at least 12,300 are children, according to Gaza’s health authority.
Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza has been condemned globally by humanitarian and rights organizations, including Amnesty International and UN agencies, as well as several governments.
