There’s a ceasefire — but Hollywood’s fight over Israel and Gaza still rages
By Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN
Los Angeles (CNN) — Over the last two years, many big-name celebrities have made noise on behalf of a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Now that a ceasefire — no matter how fragile it may be — has been reached, the tensions in Hollywood show no signs of ending. In this heated environment, even what you post online, and when you post it, is fodder.
Erin Foster, creator of Netflix’s hit series “Nobody Wants This,” went on Instagram this week to ask: “I’m not sure why everyone is being so utterly quiet today, but there is a deal in place that will finally bring peace to Palestinians. Why are you not celebrating it?”
“After 2 years of screaming ‘Ceasefire Now!!’ It is clear that was never the issue. It was eradicating Israel,” actress Debra Messing wrote on her Instagram this week. (Messing is one of Hollywood’s most vocal pro-Israel voices.) “The silence of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement is sickening,” she re-posted. “Your silence makes it unavoidably obvious that it’s only about terrorizing Jews.”
Pro-Palestinian and anti-war celebrities have used red carpets, award shows and their social media accounts to keep focus on the people of Palestine. Mark Ruffalo, for one, reposted a message this week from Film Workers for Palestine that said, “We share in the relief of Palestinians in Gaza that Israel’s relentless slaughter may be coming to an end.” A week ago, he also reposted a note from the group Artists4Ceasefire that expressed hope about the ceasefire and for the return of hostages to Israel. He was among those criticized for not marking the return of the Israeli hostages since they were released earlier this week.
Cynthia Nixon, similarly, had posted a message to “Free all the hostages and Free Palestine” on October 9, but pro-Israel activists said that she didn’t acknowledge the return of Israeli civilian hostages. These activists also suggested that none of these celebrities spoke up about Hamas executing Palestinians in the streets of Gaza this week.
The execution-style killings of Palestinians in Gaza has a potential to trigger an unraveling of the ceasefire. President Donald Trump warned Hamas this week that “We will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” in an escalation of rhetoric during this brittle moment.
“Celebrities that have been so outspoken and so engaged with this conflict and calling out Israel almost on a daily basis have all gone quiet about the brutal murder of Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire began,” says Hen Mazzig, senior fellow at the pro-Israel Tel Aviv institute, which utilizes influencers online to enact opinion change about both Jews and Israel. He made the claim that these activists didn’t care about Palestinians but were only using the cause to attack Israel, saying that “the mask was off”: “We know exactly what they stand for and we know exactly what it was all about — I think it’s clear it was about using their platform to attack Israel.”
Javier Bardem — who has been one of Hollywood’s biggest critics of Israel and most passionate advocates for Palestinians — spoke to CNN about the executions specifically.
“Of course, I am completely against the execution of anyone including Palestinians by Hamas. It is an atrocious act of violence,” Bardem said in a statement, speaking on the matter for the first time. “Everyone deserves a fair trial where the accusations are shown and proven, and only then be rightfully accountable by a fair law that obviously does not include execution.”
The boycott that will pit studios and talent against each other
Bardem is one of nearly 4,000 Hollywood figures who signed a pledge last month to boycott Israeli film institutions. The pledge said that Israel’s filmmaking industry is “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”
On the Emmys red carpet last month, Bardem wore a keffiyeh and did a series of interviews to support the people of Palestine, telling Variety, “I cannot work with somebody that justifies or supports the genocide. That’s as simple as that. And we shouldn’t be able to do that, in this industry or any other industry.”
The Israeli film boycott, organized last month by Film Workers for Palestine, drew support from a substantial number of A-listers, including Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Ayo Edebiri, Ilana Glazer, Susan Sarandon, Ruffalo, Nixon and Bardem. (A representative for Nixon did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Ruffalo’s representative said he was unavailable and in production overseas.)
The boycott prompted an open letter from a different group of Hollywood artists, including Liev Schreiber, Gene Simmons, Sharon Osbourne, Jerry O’Connell, Howie Mandel, Mayim Bialik and Messing who denounced the call to stop working with Israeli film institutions over the war in Gaza, stating that the letter promotes “censorship and the erasure of art.”
Paramount and Warner Bros. – which are both under the leadership of pro-Israel CEOs in David Ellison and David Zaslav, respectively – have issued statements taking a clear stand against the Israel film boycott, in a strong and rare public position from two major Hollywood studios. (Warner Bros. shares the same parent company as CNN.)
Now, they will have to contend with thousands of artists in the creative community who disagree with their company’s stance.
Bardem told CNN that the Film Workers for Palestine pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions is about holding institutions accountable.
“I want this to be very clear. We do not discriminate against any person based on their nationality, race, religion, or gender,” Bardem told CNN. “We of course believe discrimination of any kind is wrong and do not support that and have continued to reiterate this. We support holding companies and institutions all over the world accountable, not individuals, for their complicity and participation in the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and the illegal settlement of the West Bank.”
A representative for Artists4Ceasefire – which was the first advocacy group to galvanize prominent celebrities to call for a ceasefire after October 7, 2023 – declined to participate in an interview with CNN about next steps for the movement now that a ceasefire deal has been reached, but provided a statement about their mission of achieving a permanent ceasefire. (The representative also declined to identify who runs the organization, saying that “we are a collective of artists and advocates.”)
That group is behind the red pins that many celebrities – from Ruffalo to comedian Ramy Youssef to singer Billie Eilish – wore on the Oscars red carpet, symbolizing solidarity with Palestinian people. Roughly 500 celebrities and Hollywood artists signed the Artists4Ceasefire petition in 2023; dozens of industry A-listers signed an Artists4Ceasefire letter addressed to then-President Biden, urging the White House for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire.
“Our call remains the same as it has been since October 2023: a permanent ceasefire, a return of all hostages, and the immediate, unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza,” said the Artists4Ceasefire representative in a statement. “This is the beginning of what is required for healing, rebuilding and a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis.”
What’s next?
As the world watches to see if a ceasefire will hold and bring peace, Hollywood, usually more unified on social justice issues, will continue to wrestle both in public and in private.
“There’s a ceasefire, but I would say that it is far from resolved,” said Tatiana Siegel, executive editor of film and media at Variety. “I’ve talked to a lot of studio executives who tell me that they are very aware of who signed what and are not eager to work with people that they strongly disagree with. This was a situation where everyone in Hollywood became a Middle Eastern expert overnight and was chiming in with their opinions one way or another on social media.”
Already over the past two years, stars have been dropped from agencies and fired from franchises over this conflict. “A lot of people feel angry about what they saw,” said Siegel. “Where do we go from here?”
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