Playwright Tony Kushner backs Jonathan Glazer’s ‘unimpeachable, irrefutable’ Oscar speech amid backlash

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Playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner has spoken out in assist of director Jonathan Glazer who’s going through backlash over his Oscars acceptance speech.

Kushner, who has received Pulitzer and Tony awards for his play Angels in America, mentioned on the Haaretz Podcast launched Wednesday that he recognized with Glazer’s speech and described it as “really sort of unimpeachable, irrefutable statement”.

“Of course.  I mean, who doesn’t? What he’s saying is so simple. He’s saying: Jewishness, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering must not be used in a campaign of – as an excuse for a project of dehumanising or slaughtering other people.

“This is a misappropriation of what it means to be a Jew, what the Holocaust meant, and [Glazer] rejects that. Who doesn’t agree with that? What kind of person thinks that what’s going on now in Gaza is acceptable?” he mentioned.

“And if you find yourself saying out loud and in public, ‘Oh it’s fine with me what they’re doing,’ because you feel that it’s the only choice for you, because you’re a Jew, is to defend everything that Israel does, you know, shame on you.”

Kushner, who’s Jewish and a longtime critic of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insurance policies and therapy of Palestinians, additionally spoke about accusations that calling for a ceasefire was antisemitism.

“The people that I know who are passionately involved in calls for a ceasefire, these are not people who are antisemites, their interest is not in destroying Israel and certainly their interest is not in pogroms against Jews elsewhere”.

Kushner added that he wished “Israelis to be able to live in peace and security”, however that the “treatment of the Palestinians, as many Israelis have been saying for decades, the occupation of the West Bank and the imprisonment of people in Gaza, and the checkpoints, and the wall, and all this stuff actually doesn’t make Israel safe”.

Glazer received one of the best international language movie Oscar for The Zone of Interest, a German-language movie set within the lives of the Höss household, who stay comfortably subsequent to Auschwitz in the course of the Holocaust. While accepting his Oscar, Glazer gave the one pointedly political speech that evening, relating the occasions of his movie to the conflict in Gaza.

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“Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” mentioned Glazer.

“Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanisation – how do we resist?”

Glazer has confronted backlash after his speech was seen by many as refuting his Jewish id. An open letter denouncing his speech was handed round, with signatures from over a 1,000 folks, together with Debra Messing, Brett Gelman, Julianna Margulies, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Michael Rapaport.

The letter, described as a “statement from Jewish Hollywood professionals”, mentioned: “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”

However, different folks from the business, together with Boots Riley, Zoe Kazan and Asif Kapadia got here to Glazer’s defence. Kapadia informed Variety, “He stood up and told the truth. This is what true artists do,” and Zoe Kazan posted on X, saying she was shocked that individuals who had seen Glazer’s movie have been stunned by his message.

Israel launched its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza and a “total siege” in retaliation towards the bloody Hamas militant assault on southern Israel on 7 October. Around 1,200 folks have been killed in that assault, with one other 250 taken hostage, together with toddlers. Up to 136 of the hostages stay in Gaza, an unknown quantity are nonetheless alive.

Israel’s bombardment has killed greater than 30,000 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority girls and youngsters, in accordance with Palestinian well being officers within the Hamas-run strip. At least 60 per cent of Gaza’s properties and buildings have reportedly been destroyed or broken. More than three-quarters of the strip’s inhabitants are displaced.