Hollywood’s Anti-Israel Blacklist Just Keeps Growing
Oscar winners Emma Stone, Javier Bardem join Left's war on Jewish state
Hollywood is getting the knack for this blacklist thing.
The industry has operated an unofficial ban on conservative artists for years. Denizens don’t speak openly about it, and they occasionally let some right-leaning actors work without punishment.
Think Jon Voight, Kelsey Grammer and Tim Allen.
For many others, especially James Woods, Kevin Sorbo and Scott Baio, being on the Right means good luck finding work in La La Land. Conservatives once met in secret, under the Friends of Abe banner, to share how they were persecuted for voting the “wrong” way.
Zachary Levi of SHAZAM fame gets detailed about why conservatives in Hollywood are uniquely oppressed by the left. Liberals have caused conservatives to “go in the closet” so that 50% of us can’t be artists and speak our values in liberal industries; comics, animation and video… pic.twitter.com/J4O3n15Pqe
— Doug TenNapel (@DougTenNapel) October 21, 2024
Hollywood’s newest blacklist doesn’t operate under the cover of darkness. Everyone is talking about it, and it just keeps growing.
The list of industry professionals boycotting Israeli-linked film organizations stood at 1,900 yesterday. It just doubled in 24 hours.
The far-Left Variety’s headline pretty much says it all:
Joaquin Phoenix, Nicola Coughlan and More Join 3,900 Industry Names Pledging Not to Work With Israeli Film Institutions ‘Complicit in War Crimes’
Some of these stars happily accepted work with Disney, a studio that plays footsie with China and thanked the freedom-averse nation for collaborating on a project near concentration camps.
The very public list members agree, “they will refuse to work with Israeli institutions and companies [emphasis added] that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” according to Variety.
Here’s the official pledge:
“Inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid who refused to screen their films in apartheid South Africa, we pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions — including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies — that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
The Israeli Film and TV Producers Association called the boycott “profoundly misguided,” according to Fox News.
That’s being generous.
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We didn’t see any such list demanding the release of the hostages in the last year. Hollywood did initially rally, to a degree, against Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 atrocities.
It didn’t last long, and major Jewish stars like Steven Spielberg and Adam Sandler have been mostly quiet on the matter.
Nor did the stars assemble at any point to decry the raging antisemitism across college campuses and major U.S. cities.
Here’s a partial list of the major names who have signed on to the new Blacklist. It’s a veritable who’s who of Hollywood.
- Emma Stone
- Joaquin Phoenix
- Javier Bardem
- Adam McKay
- Mike Leigh
- Ava DuVernay
- Olivia Colman
- Riz Ahmed
- Ayo Edebiri
- Lily Gladstone
- Mark Ruffalo
- Hannah Einbinder
- Cynthia Nixon
- Rooney Mara
- Bowen Yang
- Elliot Page
- Tilda Swinton
- Melissa Barrera
That last name matters on a related front. The former “Scream” actress got briefly canceled by Hollywood for her extreme anti-Israel views. Her cancellation didn’t last long. Now, she’s a proud member of a starry list of A-listers.
Attacking Israel has become the trendy position for actors on the rise. Some may see it as a way to boost their industry cred. Actor Nick Searcy has said that this brand of activism is a form of career advancement, a sign to fellow progressives that they’re part of the team and should be considered for future projects.
Meanwhile, this starry list has stood by, awards show after awards show, not sharing a syllable about the innocent hostages being starved, if not worse, by the Palestinian government.
A brave few stars have bucked this nauseating trend: Debra Messing, David Schwimmer, Patricia Heaton, John Ondrasik and Michael Rapaport. And some have paid a professional price for it.
Rapaport once shamed his peers with this sobering Oscar sketch tied to the hostage crisis. It hit the bullseye but has yet to change any hearts and/or minds in his industry.
UPDATE: Jerry Seinfeld excoriated the “Free Palestine” movement in comments made Sept. 9 at Duke University.
“Free Palestine is, to me, just — you’re free to say you don’t like Jews … Just say you don’t like Jews. By saying ‘Free Palestine,’ you’re not admitting what you really think. So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK that’s honest.”
Editor’s Note: It’s a brutal time to be an independent journalist, but it’s never been more necessary given the sorry state of the corporate press. If you’re enjoying Hollywood in Toto, I hope you’ll consider leaving a coin (or two) in our Tip Jar.
The party that creates and endorses the terror doings of ICE and that seeks to steal from and hoodwink the most needy and marginalized of Americans can never be my party. There is only injustice, suffering, and destruction of every higher thought I was raised with as an American.
Yes I feel the Jew hatred permeating the national and global atmosphere, and I suffer from it, in fear and grief.
The people murdered at the Nova festival and on kibbutzim on October 7 were the peacemakers, the lovers of this world. Their loftiness did not save their physical earth lives, nor temper the savagery with which they were murdered, nor would endorsing the Palestinian cause have saved your life if you were in Israel on October 7.
For me, the inner task at hand is to live with political and human paradox, along with clinging to love, to hope, to kindness, to the truth of One-ness, and yes, to innocence, in memory and honor of the slaughtered Innocents of this world, whatever and wherever their origin.
I usually use pseudonyms. Not anymore. I’m Jewish. I live in White Plains, NY 10605. I love movies, I love Israel and I”ll use any means necessary to keep liberty alive in NYS and the USA. So I appreciate you publishing the list of actors I won’t ever see. Too bad, because I liked some of the work they’ve done in the past.
Asking Israel to behave differently than OTHER sovereign nations, when methed up commandos recently stormed in and a** raped their women and lit families on fire is a bit much. Tell you what, Hollywood jelly bellies, how about you watch that happen to your family and then ask yourself if you’d like your nation to avenge you. Think about that, you hollow-souled script envelopes. That’s all you are; empty envelopes into which words are poured, and most of you need coaches and lots of editing to string together a scene anyway. BTW, my grandpa, Murray Sanders was in the army with Jimmy Cagney. Cagney spoke Yiddish. You don’t like Jews? Good for you. We don’t need your bullsh** remakes and CGI, unoriginal garbage anyway.
I would be surprised to see Bardem, Then again he is the son of unapologetic commies, which is ironic given he played a Cuban artist that was suppressed by Castro’s regime, you’d think that would open his eyes but I guess not
Steve Spielberg is the worst of them all. He only supported Israel when it benefited him, now nowhere to be seen. Israel needs to revoke any and all awards and honors they have given him.
Spielberg is particularly reprehensible. He essentially has made the Holocaust his own territory, though Schindler’s List is far from what the definitive Holocaust film should be. It’s actually quite deficient. Yet, having made himself the film star of the Holocaust, he now becomes part of the cowardly type who made the Holocaust possible in the first place. No wonder his creation is so lacking.
A friend’s wife is Jewish but also a big supporter of the democrats. She knows I’m a republican, and sometimes insults me about it. I just point out her party’s hatred of Israel and that shuts her down. She’s a perfect democrat that has mastered Doublethink. When I’ve pointed out various issues with her support of democrats & Israel, she just gets mad. A perfect NPC democrat, they lack critical thinking skills.
Agree that too many self hating Jews hate western democracy Israel the ‘oppressor’ and support the democrat party embracing Palestinian terrorists as ‘victims’. Unable to fathom the logic of this.
great