Tony Kushner
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Tony Kushner has come out in support of Jonathan Glazer's Oscar acceptance speech, describing the British director's comments at the ceremony as an “unfair irrefutable statement”.
He speaks on that day Haaretz Podcast It was released Wednesday, asking Kushner, a four-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, about his feelings on several topics related to the Israel-Gaza conflict and bringing up Glazer's speech, which has been attacked by some Jewish figures in Hollywood. The subject of a recent open letter signed by over 1,000 people.
At the time of the podcast, Kushner is in Israel to promote a production of his Tony Award-winning play. Angels in America In Tel Aviv, there was backlash to Glazer's Oscar speech, which he described as “a really innocuous, irrefutable statement.” The playwright was asked if he agreed with Glazer's comments, to which Kushner replied, “Of course, I mean, who wouldn't?”
Kushner explains, “What [Glazer’s] It is very simple to say. He says that Jews, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering should not be used as an excuse to dehumanize or kill others.
“It's what it means to be a Jew, what the Holocaust stands for, and he rejects it. Who wouldn't agree with that?” he continues.
“What kind of person thinks what is happening in Gaza right now is acceptable?” Kushner says. “If you find yourself loudly and publicly saying, 'I'm fine with what they're doing,' because you're a Jew, you think the only choice for you is to defend all of Israel. You know, shame on you.”
Earlier in the podcast, Kushner, a long-time critic of Israel's policies and treatment of the Palestinians, particularly Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed accusations that calling for a cease-fire is anti-Semitic. “People I know who are passionately involved in calls for a cease-fire are not anti-Semitic, their interest is not in the destruction of Israel, and certainly not their interest in pogroms against Jews elsewhere.”
“What they're really interested in, the passion and the fury that you see, is because thousands of lives are at stake, tens of millions of lives are at stake. Because what seems to me like ethnic cleansing is happening right before our eyes,” Kushner said. I'm sure people are saying, 'Yes, it's ours now,' how is that not ethnic cleansing?”
Kushner said he wants “Israelis to live in peace and security,” but that “the treatment of the Palestinians, as many Israelis have been saying for decades, the occupation of the West Bank and the incarceration of people in Gaza, and the checkpoints, the wall and all of that has not really made Israel safe.
