Susan Sarandon: ‘Gaza Is Here,’ Trump Is a ‘Criminal’
Far-Left actress defends activist Mahmoud Khalil as a free speech casualty
Susan Sarandon got caught in a censorial dustup following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Her opposition to President George W. Bush’s War on Terror got her uninvited from a 2003 “Bull Durham” celebration along with co-star Tim Robbins. Neither she nor Robbins, her partner at the time, stayed silent on the matter.
That was then.
In recent years, Sarandon has stood down while serious free speech assaults rocked the culture.
Examples?
- The Twitter Files attacked conservative thought on a massive platform
- Cancel Culture scolds policed jokes on the stand-up landscape
- A U.S. president got booted from several social media platforms
- Artists self-censored by erasing work featuring problematic comedy like “blackface”-adjacent material
- Woke activists insisted Identity Politics override casting decisions
- The Biden administration told Big Tech platforms to censor “malinformation”
- Sensitivity readers erased passages from books by Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie
That’s a partial list.
Sarandon wasn’t alone in her silence. Most Hollywood activists also took a rhetorical knee.
The censorship didn’t impact liberal voices or causes. They felt no need to defend those being silenced, only rising up when far-Left books got banned in public schools.
Harsh? Is there another explanation?
Now, the Oscar winner has found a new cause – a Palestinian activist named Mahmoud Khalil who allegedly brought chaos to Columbia University.
“On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.”
Remember: Hamas killed 1,200 innocents on October 7 and kidnapped hundreds more. The terrorist group murdered some hostages over the past year-plus, including children.
The Oct. 7 attack also committed unspeakable crimes on women. The searing 2024 documentary “Screams Before Silence” let survivors tell that story.
Sarandon previously suggested said atrocities didn’t happen.
Now, the star is fighting like hell to protect Khalil’s First Amendment rights, even though he’s not a U.S. citizen but a green card holder.
Or was, if the Trump administration has its way.
RELATED: SARANDON, BARRERA DOUBLE DOWN ON ISRAEL HATE
Sarandon joined a pro-Khalil gathering Saturday to slam the Trump administration and protest Khalil’s potential deportation.
It’s about free speech. Of course.
It has no connection to Sarandon’s ties to the Palestinian cause, which got her in deep trouble in 2023. She lost her agent following comments like this:
“There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.”
Now, an emboldened Sarandon is speaking out once more.
“What is happening in Palestine cannot ever be normalized and that’s why we’re here tonight,” Sarandon said days after Israel resumed its military attack in Gaza after Hamas refused to release the remaining hostages.
The actress read from an essay tied to what’s happening both stateside and in Gaza.
NOW: @SusanSarandon speaks out for Palestine at NYC event for Mahmoud Khalil.
“We are not separate from what is happening in Gaza, as hard as we may try to make ourselves feel that way, Gaza is here.” pic.twitter.com/aOOXXs87jo
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) March 23, 2025
“This is personal now. This isn’t just about some strangers in the Middle East. It’s also about you. It’s about your rights. It’s about your freedom to speak out against the criminality of your rulers.
“We are not separate from what’s happening in Gaza. As hard as we may try to make ourselves feel that way, Gaza is here. The waves of blood are lapping at your doorstep. The dead and mutilated children are strewn about your living room and kitchen. They were placed there by the powerful people who run your government and its allies.”
This was a really interesting read, and I have to say—it highlights just how tangled public discourse has become when it comes to celebrities, politics, and global issues. Susan Sarandon has always been outspoken, so it’s not surprising to see her weighing in, but it’s the way these statements ripple across social media and public perception that really fascinates me.
The article raises a valid point about how polarizing these moments can be, especially when political commentary intersects with emotionally charged issues like Gaza. It’s one thing for celebrities to speak out, but it’s another when their comments start to blur lines or amplify voices that may have more controversial or complex backgrounds—like Mahmoud Khalil.
At the same time, I think it’s important to remember that we want public figures to care, to speak up. The tricky part is how it’s framed and what responsibility they carry when doing so. And, of course, with Trump’s name never far from the mix, it all gets dialed up even more.
Susan Sarandon is mostly famous for exposing her ample breasts thirty or so years ago. I’m not sure that act qualifies her as an intellectual giant capable of serious analysis of the Middle East problems.
Please stop calling her an actress. “Former Actress” is more accurate as she has lost her representation due to her antisemitic statements. She is a liberal pro terror antagonist. Hollywood will never cast her in anything as she has burned every bridge to that career.
Holy Moly! I thought her past insanities were way up there, but this one is TOPS – so far!
Dead, mutilated children? Did I miss her condemnation of hamass’ ROASTING babies ALIVE while forcing their Parents to watch and hear the screams and then be MERCIFULLY murdered by her precious hamass and “palestinians”?? SHE should go to gaza – we DON’T want it HERE!
Fomenting violence and supporting terrorist organizations are odd ways to exercise free speech, but Khalil certainly fits well with the modern left!
By the way, that Hasidic Jew in the photo is undoubtedly from a lunatic and tiny sect called “Neturei Karta.” They are anti-Israel, pro-Iran, and thoroughly despicable.
Why hasn’t she left the country yet?
There is no far-left. It is just the left. There is no moderate left. There is just the left. There are no liberals on the left. There are only leftists. Leftists have no enemies on the left.
The only struggle Sarandon cares about is the struggle to remain relevant, and that is a battle she has already lost.