HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS BLACKLIST CRUZ AND BARDEM FOR CRITICIZINF criticizing Israel
The Unhived Mind
Hollywood studios blacklist Cruz and Bardem for criticizing Israel
Sun Aug 10, 2014 10:3PM GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/10/374829/hollywood-shuns-actors-for-scolding-israel/
Two leading Hollywood actors are facing a serious backlash from the US film industry’s top executives for openly criticizing Israel’s atrocities in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Pledges to shun the two pro-Palestinian Spanish actors are believed to have been made privately by a handful of top Hollywood executives. The actors reportedly could face losing work over the criticism.
The Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and her husband Javier Bardem wrote an open letter in which they called the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli military a “genocide.”
Any criticism of Israel in the US is considered anti-Semitism and is not tolerated, highlighting the depth of Israeli lobby’s influence on American media and the government.
An increasing number of artists and celebrities, however, are criticizing Israel for the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza strip.
The Spanish couple was among 100 film professionals to sign the open Spanish letter in July calling on the European Union to end Israel’s military operation in Gaza. The letter urged Western leaders to “condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”
In addition to the open letter, Bardem wrote an op-ed in Spain’s El Diario newspaper.
“In the horror happening in Gaza right now there is NO place for distance or neutrality. It’s a war of extermination waged against occupation and to people with no means, confined in a minimum territory, with no water, and where hospitals, ambulances, and children are targets and presumed to be terrorist. It’s hard to understand and impossible to justify. And it’s disgraceful that western countries are permitting such genocide,” he wrote.
Israeli military aggression against Gaza, which began on July 8, has claimed the lives of more than 1,918 Palestinians, including more than 400 children, and wounded about 10,000 others. The United Nations says over 80 percent of the fatalities in Gaza have been civilians.
A Press TV correspondent said in a report on Wednesday that the scope of devastation and misery across Gaza is massive. Many of the injured are left in need of treatment and residents have no homes to return to.
In addition to homes, UN shelters, schools and hospitals have also been frequently targeted in the Israeli military offensive.