Jewish groups blast Glazer’s ‘anti-Israel’ speech at the Oscars
Jewish organizations on Monday condemned The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech in which he claimed that Jewishness and the Holocaust were being hijacked by Israel in service of conflict, equated the October 7 massacre and Israeli operations against Hamas, and implied that both events were caused by dehumanization comparable to the hate that led to the Holocaust.
“Mr. Glazer’s remarks at the Oscars are an affront to the memory of those who endured the horrors of the Holocaust,” said a spokesperson for the World Jewish Congress. “There is no comparison between the Nazis’ attempt to annihilate the Jewish people and the defensive war that Israel is waging in response to the October 7th attacks carried out by Hamas.”
B’nai B’rith International denounced the comparisons of the Holocaust to the conflict in Gaza.
“His condemnation of ‘dehumanization’ and his outrageous use of the Holocaust analogy ignore the barbarity of Hamas terror and disregard Israel’s obligation to defend itself,” said B’nai B’rith International.
The American Jewish Committee said that Glazer’s comments about the hijacking of the Holocaust was “obscene distortion of Israel’s reality and a trivialization,” of the genocide.
“As Israel, home to the largest number of living Holocaust survivors, works to eliminate the continued threat posed by Hamas, an Iranbacked internationally recognized terror organization, and as American Jews are facing an unprecedented surge in antisemitism with ugly anti-Israel discourse and anti-Zionist antisemitism spreading at an alarming rate, these comments are dangerous,” said AJC. “They give cover to pro-Hamas protesters and their so-called advocacy, providing an excuse to attack Jews and spread anti-Jewish hate.”
The American Jewish Committee said that Glazer’s comments about the hijacking of the Holocaust was “obscene distortion of Israel’s reality and a trivialization,” of the genocide.
“As Israel, home to the largest number of living Holocaust survivors, works to eliminate the continued threat posed by Hamas, an Iran-backed internationally recognized terror organization, and as American Jews are facing an unprecedented surge in antisemitism with ugly anti-Israel discourse and anti-Zionist antisemitism spreading at an alarming rate, these comments are dangerous,” said AJC. “They give cover to pro-Hamas protesters and their so-called advocacy, providing an excuse to attack Jews and spread anti-Jewish hate.”
World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel warned Glazer that he too would appear on Hamas’s lists, and they would not spare him.
“134 abductees have been undergoing physical, mental, and sexual abuse for the past five months. I am urging you, Mr. Glazer, you self-hating Jew who lives in a bubble in Islamist-ruled London, to come here to Israel,” said Hagoel. “Meet the families of the abductees. Look in the eyes of the mother of Shiri, of the one-year-old baby Kfir, and four-yearold Ariel, who are all being held by these vicious terrorists. Look at the photos of the women who were brutally raped, abused, and murdered, and ARE being raped in tunnels to this day. Look at the parents of the hundreds of young people who came to a party just to celebrate life, nature, and love and were slaughtered just because they were Jewish. Where is your condemnation?”
Hagoel attacked the ceasefire pins that were worn by some celebrities at the award show, asserting that the red hands were based on the lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah in 2000.
“Your blood is the same as ours, even if you refute it. Shame on you,” said Hagoel.
Combat Antisemitism Movement CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said Glazer was appropriating his religious and ethnic identity to attack Israel while it was defending itself against genocidal actors.
“It is Glazer himself who has hijacked his important portrayal of the Holocaust to assist in the dehumanization of the fight for Jewish survival, while not saying a word about the tsunami of antisemitism facing Jews globally,” said Roytman Dratwa.
CAM invited Glazer to talk about why it was important to address antisemitism, and why Jews were currently fearful to outwardly identify as Jews.
Creative Community for Peace Executive Director Ari Ingel said Glazer’s statements reek of “internalized antisemitism, where he believes that by rejecting his own Jewishness, and then deploying it as a weapon, he will be deemed a good Jew, in contrast to the vast majority of us bad Jews. Jewish history is full of sellouts like this, but in the end, the world will see him as just a Jew no matter his betrayal.”