[ad_1]
The US Holocaust Survivors Foundation has attacked The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer for what it describes as his “morally indefensible” Oscar acceptance speech on Sunday.
In an open letter posted on the organization’s website, the foundation’s president, David Schaecter, wrote: “You made a film about the Holocaust and won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it is shameful that you dare to speak on behalf of the six million Jews, including one and a half million children, who were murdered solely because of their Jewish identity.”
Schaecter added: “You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel. If in your mind the creation, existence and survival of the State of Israel as a Jewish State equates to ‘occupation,’ then you obviously learned nothing from your film.”
Glazer, along with film producer James Wilson, won the Academy Award for Best International Film for The Hotspot, about the daily life of Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig. In his speech, Glazer said that he and Wilson “are here as men who refute their Judaism and the Holocaust held hostage by an occupation that has driven so many innocent people into conflict, whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the attack on course. in Gaza.”
On Monday the Anti-Defamation League posted a message on social media attacking Glazer’s comments as “reprehensible,” saying: “Israel is not hijacking Judaism or the Holocaust by defending itself against genocidal terrorists. Glazer’s comments at the #Oscars are factually incorrect and morally reprehensible. “They minimize the Shoah and excuse terrorism of the most heinous kind.”
Glazer has also received widespread support for his comments, including from the Israeli military veterans organization Breaking the Silence, which published a statement on social media saying: “(Glazer) took an unequivocal stance against the cynical use of Judaism and the Holocaust in the name of justifying the occupation… we refuse to accept the ease with which the blood and lives of civilians are used as justification for ideologies policies, or as currency. “Empathy is not a zero-sum game.”