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Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for SBIFF
One of America’s most celebrated writers and one of Steven Spielberg’s frequent collaborators spoke today on the Haaretz Podcast about the controversy over Jonathan Glazer’s speech after Area of interest It won Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.
Speaking about the protests in the United States and their impacts, Tony Kushner, winner of the Tony, Emmy and Pulitzer Prizes, voiced surprise at what he called “the pushback after Jonathan Glazer’s truly impeccable and irrefutable statement at the Oscars.”
When asked if he identified Glazer’s comments, Kushner responded: “Of course. I mean, who doesn’t?
For context, here’s Glazer’s full speech:
Thank you so much. I’m going to read, I’m afraid.
Thank you to the Academy for this honor and to our partners A24 Films for access and to the Polish Film Institute, the Stead Museum for their trust and guidance, and to my producers, actors and collaborators.
All our decisions were made to reflect and confront ourselves in the present, not to say look what they did then, but look what we do now.
Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It has shaped our entire past and present. Right now, we stand here as men refuting their Judaism and the Holocaust held hostage by an occupation that has driven so many innocent people into conflict.
Whether it is the victims of October, whether it is the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist? Alexandria, the girl who shines in the movie as she did in life, decided to do it. She dedicated this to her memory and her resilience. Thank you.
“What (Glazer) says is so simple,” Kushner said. “He is saying that Judaism, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering should not be used in a campaign as an excuse for a project to dehumanize or massacre other people. “This is a misappropriation of what it means to be Jewish, of what the Holocaust meant, and he rejects it.”
He continued: “Who disagrees with that? What kind of person thinks what is happening now in Gaza is acceptable? If you find yourself saying out loud and in public, ‘What they’re doing is fine with me,’ because you feel like your only option as a Jew is to defend everything Israel does, shame on you.”
More than a thousand entertainment industry professionals signed a letter this week denouncing Glazer’s speech.
“We reject that our Judaism is hijacked in order to establish a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a human race and an Israeli nation that seeks to prevent its own extermination,” the letter states in part (read in full in its entirety here).
Others, like She said Star Zoe Kazan has gone public with her support for Glazer, and a Change.org petition in her favor has amassed 1,670 signatures.
Speaking specifically about the situation in the Middle East, Kushner seemed to suggest that his views are evolving in terms of how to respond.
“In my journey over the last five months, I have come close to the idea that perhaps a boycott is necessary, but I cannot do it. “I cannot separate myself from Israel.”
The goal, he stated, is peace for all, including Israelis.
“I want Israelis to be able to live in peace… I think the occupation in Gaza… all these things do not make Israel safe.”