The Oscar-winning married actors Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz have supplied with angry divisions within Hollywood over the Gaza conflict by accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Palestine (Gaza).
Hollywood has moved one step further by blacklisting both actors after they signed an open letter which mentioned clearly that “Tel Aviv is committing genocide”.
The letter blames Israel for fueling the war on Gaza by “advancing on Palestinian territories instead of withdrawing to the 1967 borders”. It added: “Gaza is living through horror … while the international community does nothing.”
The letter also requires the EU to “condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip… Gaza is living through horror these days, besieged and attacked by land, sea and air. Palestinians’ homes are being destroyed; they are being denied water, electricity [and] free movement to their hospitals, schools and fields while the international community does nothing.”
In the same time, many are not in the same filed with Cruz and Bardem. The actor Jon Voight wrote his own letter saying the both actors should hang their heads in shame! He claimed they had stoked “the fire of anti-Semitism”. Since US consider any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism and is not tolerated; it is so clear how Israeli lobby is controlling American media and the government.
“I am asking all my peers who signed that poison letter against Israel to examine their motives. Can you take back the fire of anti-Semitism that is raging all over the world now?” He wrote.
However, the number of artists and celebrities who still criticizing Israel for the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is increasing, while Hollywood has been silent.
Cruz and Bardem were among 100 film professionals to sign an open Spanish letter in July asking the European Union to stop Israel’s army offensive on Gaza. The letter incited Western leaders to “condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”
Ryan Kavanaugh, the chief executive of Relativity Media, told The Hollywood Reporter: “As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I know that anyone calling what’s going on in Israel ‘genocide’ vs. self-defense is either ignorant and shouldn’t be commenting or is truly anti-Semitic.”
Bardem also wrote an op-ed in Spain’s El Diario newspaper, next to the open letter, saying: “In the horror happening in Gaza right now there is NO place for distance or neutrality. It’s a war of extermination waged against occupation and to people with no means, confined in a minimum territory, with no water, and where hospitals, ambulances, and children are targets and presumed to be terrorist. It’s hard to understand and impossible to justify. And it’s disgraceful that western countries are permitting such genocide.”
The latest offensive on Gaza, which began on July 8, has ended the lives of more than 1,918 Palestinians, including more than 400 children, and wounded about 10,000 others. The United Nations says over 80 percent of the fatalities in Gaza have been civilians.
