Despite the pro-Palestinian protests outside and the awarding of politically charged films, Sunday night's Oscars were a surprisingly apolitical event, with one notable exception.
Horrible Holocaust film wins Academy Award for Best International Feature Film area of interest, director Jonathan Glazer takes a stand against Israel's ongoing military bombing of the Gaza Strip as part of the Israel-Hamas war. Director Glazer, who is Jewish, has expressed the dialogue so far in his films, which literally deal with the banality of evil, in a simple and direct way.
“Every choice we’ve made has been to reflect and confront who we are today,” Glazer said. “It’s not about saying, ‘Look what they did then,’ it’s about saying, ‘Look what we’re doing now.’ Our film shows how dehumanization leads to the worst possible situations. It shaped both our past and our present.”
“Now we stand here as people who refute their Jewishness and the fact that the Holocaust was hijacked by a profession that created conflict for so many innocent people. “Whether the victims of Israel’s October 7 or the ongoing attacks on Gaza, the victims of all this dehumanization, how can we resist?”
Glazer's speech was initially heavily misquoted in some sources. include Diversity, which has led to confusion as to whether he has completely “disproved” his Jewishness. This met with conservative audiences, as expected. backlashMeghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain Abe FoxmanFormer Defamation League president, each incorrectly. Quotation Glaser “disproved his Jewishness.” Some Jewish organizations claimed that Glazer himself was actually “hijacking” the Holocaust.
What Glazer actually said is much clearer. He and his collaborators deny that Jewishness and the Holocaust are being used to justify the ongoing military offensive in Gaza. These are feelings that many Jews have. Like Glazer, Jews around the world have spoken about how they perceive their identity to have been co-opted by the extremist Israeli government and its allies, who seek a fully oppressed Palestinian state. The two-state solution for the “Not In My Name” movement activists no longer supports.
Glazer was the only person on stage to speak about Palestine during the event, and even his remarks drew relatively mild applause from an audience wary of placing themselves too firmly on one side of an inherently polarizing issue. However, some celebrities also wore red pins in support of the Gaza ceasefire. poor things Actors Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo, singer Billie Eilish, actress Mahershala Ali, and director Ava DuVernay.