May 20, 2021 8:30am PT
After an attack at a Los Angeles restaurant that is under investigation by the LAPD as a hate crime, Hollywood is speaking out against antisemitism.
Debra Messing, Mayim Bialik, Meghan McCain and Kim Kardashian are among the celebrities who have taken to social media, urging for peace and calm amid the alarming escalation of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The mounting toll of more than 200 casualties threatens to inflame the entire Middle East.
The tensions across the world have been reverberating in the U.S. through the rise in brutal and public antisemitic attacks against Jews.
“I’m speechless and devastated by the antisemitic attacks in my home city as well as the vandalism very close to my home targeting Jewish businesses in the past 24 hours,” Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory” and “Call Me Cat” star, tweeted on Wednesday. “I don’t even know what else to say,” she continued.
The assault occurred just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday night at a sushi restaurant in the Beverly Grove neighborhood, near the Beverly-Fairfax area of mid-City L.A. The LAPD has yet to make an arrest or release a motive.
Video of the attack shows individuals in a caravan of cars with Palestinian flags shouting “Fuck you” as they drove by the restaurant, Sushi Fumi, on La Cienega Blvd. In the footage, a group that reportedly numbered about 30 people, dressed mostly in black with face coverings, threw glass bottles at diners eating outside.
“They were cussing at Jews,” a man who was attacked told ABC 7, the ABC-owned affiliate in Los Angeles. The anonymous victim said after the hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric was shouted from the cars, the individuals from the caravan then got out of the cars and approached the sidewalk. At one point, a man who was being attacked defended himself by swinging a metal stanchion at the attackers, who continued to assault him, punching, kicking and throwing him against a car.
“I realized I had to take something to scare them,” said the anonymous victim, speaking to KABC-TV. “There were many girls behind us. I was scared that they would attack everybody.”
A separate witness at the scene told the L.A. Times that the attackers yelled, “Death to Jews” and “Free Palestine.”
In light of the attacks, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the LAPD is investigating the ambush as a hate crime, saying on Twitter, “L.A. is a city of belonging, not of hate. There is simply no place for antisemitism, discrimination, or prejudice of any kind in Los Angeles. And we will never tolerate bigotry and violence in our communities.”
The L.A. incident is one of several antisemitic attacks that have been reported in the wake of the conflict. Also on Tuesday, Orange Delite & Grill, a kosher restaurant on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, was vandalized and its front glass door was smashed. On Wednesday, footage of a New York City brawl outside of a bagel shop emerged on social media, with the NYPD trying to break up the fight.
“The vicious attacks on Jews we are seeing on the streets of America is pure Jew hatred and a direct result of the inflammatory rhetoric that is being pushed online. It should be condemned by everyone,” says Ari Ingel, director of Creative Community for Peace, an apolitical industry-backed nonprofit. “Both Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace and safety, and attacking Jews in America is not going to help bring about the change we all so urgently desire.”
Earlier this week, CNN fired a freelance contributor, Adeel Raja, who tweeted pro-Holocaust messages, including one message that stated, “The world today needs a Hitler.” A CNN spokesperson confirmed cutting ties in a statement that read, “Adeel Raja has never been a CNN employee. As a freelancer, his reporting contributed to some news gathering efforts from Islamabad. However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity.” (Despite numerous antisemitic tweets, Raja’s Twitter account is still active.)
Antisemitic hate crimes have been on a steady uptick for years, globally and in the United States. According to the FBI, incidents related to religion increased 7% from 2018, with 1,521 total incidents reported. Some 63% of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2019 were directed at Jews and Jewish institutions, making it the single largest category of hate crimes in the United States.
These most recent antisemitic attacks come as tensions are rising — and rapidly spreading across social media with misinformation from all ends — in response to the conflict in the Middle East.
Kim Kardashian, who has more than 222 million followers on Instagram, posted on her Instagram stories on Wednesday calling for peace in the Middle East. “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but both Palestinians and Israelis deserve to live in peace and safety,” Kardashian posted, re-sharing a statement originally posted by Jewish singer-songwriter and progressive Zionist activist Hilary Hawn, also known as HRH. “Anyone who tries to convince you that one must come at the expense of the other does not support human rights for all humans.”
Comedian Sarah Silverman, whose sister Susan Silverman is a rabbi in Jerusalem, reacted to the L.A. attack, urging her 12.4 million Twitter followers to separate the Jewish people from Israel, tweeting, in part: “Jews in the diaspora need allies.” But Silverman’s post drew ire from many Jews on Twitter who called the post itself antisemitic, namely the part where Silverman opines, “We are not Israel.”
Writer, comedian and influencer Erin Foster also posted on her Instagram stories, noting that her friend was at the scene, taking videos of the attack, while seated at the sushi restaurant. “If you learned about this conflict a week ago and think it’s harmless to post pro-Palestine without learning more, you should know it’s harmful. Peace is the thing you should be promoting,” Foster wrote. “I’m Jewish and I go to this sushi restaurant every week. A caravan of pro-Palestine people drove by and screamed ‘Who’s Jewish?’ Then got out and beat the shit out of people.”
Also in response to the Sushi Fumi attack, actor Michael Rapaport issued a clarion call to “social justice friends.”
“Why aren’t Jews included in your activism?” Rapaport posted on Instagram.
“There is so much disinformation about Israel being spread and it is getting people hurt,” said “Will & Grace” star Debra Messing, who posted a long thread on social media. She wrote, in part, “There are videos from all over the world, including the U.S., of crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters attacking, beating, kicking, using pipes as weapons against Jews. It’s horrifying. Attacks against Jews has increased 483% in the last 10 days. 86 attacks. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose sole purpose is to kill every Jew and destroy Israel. Most people living in Israel want peace.”
The Anti-Defamation League, the New York-based international anti-hate organization, is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the attackers involved in the Sushi Fumi incident.
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By: Malina Saval
As tensions continue to flare in the Middle East, Creative Community for Peace, an apolitical, non-profit entertainment industry organization, has come together to issue a collective call for “peace, balanced discourse and an end to inflammatory one-sided accounts” of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Territories. This divisive rhetoric, notes the org, serves only to foment an already incendiary crisis that has, this past week alone, claimed more than 200 lives.
Creative Community for Peace was founded in 2012 by David Renzer, former chairman/CEO of Universal Music Publishing, and Steve Schnur, worldwide executive & Music President, Electronic Arts.
More than 125 leaders in the entertainment industry, including KISS frontman Gene Simmons, Grammy Award-winning artist Michael Bublé, Haim Saban, chairman & CEO, Saban Capital Group, and songwriter-producer Diane Warren, signed the Creative Community for Peace-endorsed open letter, which urges peace in the Middle East and implores fellow members of the entertainment industry to use their celebrity platforms to encourage productive, fact-based discourse, with peace as the main objective. The open letter also acknowledges the pain and loss impacting all parties involved in the conflict.
“I pray for peace,” says Saban, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt and moved with his family to Tel Aviv, Israel when he was 12.
“There has to be a way to sit down and talk through differences,” says Simmons, who was born in Haifa, in northern Israel, and emigrated with his family to the States at the age of eight.
“I pray for peace. For all.”
The joint statement from the Creative Community for Peace comes amid a surge of violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including indiscriminate rocket attacks targeting metropolitan areas throughout Israel, as well as Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza. Hamas, a militant Palestinian Islamic organization that has controlled the Gaza Strip since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005, has launched more than 2,000 rockets into Israel, including Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. On May 15, an Israeli air raid flattened a 12-story tower that served as a Hamas stronghold. The building, located in Gaza City, also housed offices belonging to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera and the U.S.-based Associated Press.
Friction between Israel and Palestine has also mounted over an Israeli court order to evict Palestinian residents from the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah in East Jerusalem. That order is currently awaiting an appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court.
A flurry of anti-Israel memes and posts have since erupted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with Israeli actor Gal Gadot skewered on social media after posting a statement calling for peace.
“My heart breaks. My country is at war,” Gadot posted on Twitter. “I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”
Gabriella Geisinger, Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy, called Gadot’s post “harmful.” Writer and activist Aaron Vallely commented that “Gal Gadot’s statement is far worse than that tone-deaf ‘Imagine’ video from last year.”
This vitriol, says Ari Ingel, an entertainment attorney and director of Creative Community for Peace, serves only to “increase the animosity and hatred, which unfortunately, has real life consequences.”
“Misinformation that is being spread online and then amplified by social media influencers, influencers with no real knowledge of what is happening, is only working to inflame the situation, instead of working to de-escalate it and work through some sort of resolution to the situation,” Ingel continues. “The misleading and fallacious memes that are being posted from people that have no real concept of what is happening there and are not experts on the conflict are just making a horrible situation far worse.”
The open letter, notes Ingel, is also to inform the public that “Hamas is playing a leading role in this violence.”
“While we may have differing views on whether the evictions are legitimate or not legitimate, that doesn’t take away from Hamas firing these missiles indiscriminately at civilian populations in Israel, which affects Arabs and Jews,” says Ingel. “People need to call on [Hamas] to stop firing missiles and stop inflaming the situation.”
Along with Gadot, Ingel also highlights entertainment figures such as Rihanna, who wrote on her Instagram page that she “stand[s] with humanity,” and DJ Khaled, who issued a call for “love and light and prayers.”
“I think we need to elevate the voices of people like Rihanna, who are calling for an end to the violence and not choosing sides,” says Ingel. “That is really what entertainers should be doing. Because it’s horrible that both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering. We need to de-escalate this violence as soon as possible.”
The Creative Community for Peace open letter is as follows:
“We are deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The loss of life and violence is heartbreaking. We call on the leaders of all parties to end the violence, urge calm, and work toward de-escalation.
“We also call on our colleagues and friends in the entertainment community to stop posting misinformation and one-sided narratives that only work to inflame the conflict instead of bringing about peace.
“While we may have differing opinions on the conflict, it is never okay for Hamas to publicly call for the killing of civilians, use civilians as human shields, and rain down missiles indiscriminately on civilian populations with no care about who is killed—Arab or Jew.
“When lives are at stake, we all bear responsibility to unite rather than divide. Incendiary language only benefits those at the extremes who have no interest in peace. Our thoughts are with all Israelis and Palestinians who are experiencing unfathomable levels of fear and violence, and hope for the day when both peoples can live side by side in peace.”
The signatories to the open letter include: Gene Simmons; Meghan McCain (co-host, “The View”); Haim Saban; Sherry Lansing (former CEO of Paramount Pictures); Orly Agai Marley (president, Tuff Gong Worldwide); David Draiman (frontman, Disturbed); Noa Tishby (author, producer, actor); Selma Blair; Michael Buble; Diane Warren; Ben Silverman (chairman and co-chief executive officer of Propagate Content); Steve Schnur; Michael Rotenberg (partner, 3 Arts Entertainment); Mitchell Gossett (Industry Entertainment Partners); Andrew Gould (EVP Music Publishing, Roc Nation); Emmanuelle Chriqui (actress, activist); David Byrnes (partner at Ziffren, Brittenham, LLP); eve Barlow (music journalist); Aton Ben-Horin (global vice president of A&R for Warner Music Group); Kosha Dillz (artist, rapper); Amanda Kogan (agent, The Gersh Agency); David Renzer; Traci Szymanski (president, Co-Star Entertainment); Matisyahu (musician); Adam Taylor (president, APM Music); and Jordan Frazes (founder FRAZES CREATIVE).
A complete list of signatories can be found here: https://www.creativecommunityforpeace.com/blog/2021/05/14/open-letter-on-the-middle-east-situation/
Read the original article here.
“We call on our colleagues & friends in the entertainment community to stop posting misinformation & one-sided narratives that only work to inflame the conflict instead of bringing about peace.”
By SARAH CHEMLA MAY 18, 2021 13:50
As tensions in the Middle East continue after more than a week of escalating violence, more than 130 leaders from the entertainment industry gathered by the organization Creative Community for Peace signed an open letter calling for “peace, balanced discourse and an end to inflammatory one-sided accounts” of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), an apolitical, non-profit entertainment industry organization, was founded in 2012 by David Renzer, former chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing, and Steve Schnur, worldwide executive & music president, Electronic Arts.
The first-of-its-kind open letter calling for peace urged entertainment community leaders to use their voice, influence and platforms to “call for the de-escalation of violence and the end to divisive rhetoric while also acknowledging the pain and loss impacting all parties involved in the conflict.”
This divisive rhetoric, stated the organization, serves only to foment an already incendiary crisis that has, this past week alone, claimed more than 200 lives.
The joint statement was signed by Michael Bublé, Sherry Lansing, Gene Simmons, Meghan McCain, Selma Blair, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Haim Saban, Diane Warren, Orly Agai Marley, David Draiman, Ben Silverman and Matisyahu, among many others. The open letter was made public on Friday.
“I pray for peace,” said Saban, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved with his family to Tel Aviv when he was 12.
“There has to be a way to sit down and talk through differences,” said Simmons, who was born in Haifa, in northern Israel, and emigrated with his family to the states at the age of eight. “I pray for peace. For all.”
“We are deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories,” the letter read. “The loss of life and violence is heartbreaking. We call on the leaders of all parties to end the violence, urge calm, and work toward de-escalation.”
“WE ALSO call on our colleagues and friends in the entertainment community to stop posting misinformation and one-sided narratives that only work to inflame the conflict instead of bringing about peace,” the statement continued.
“Misinformation that is being spread online and then amplified by social media influencers, influencers with no real knowledge of what is happening, is only working to inflame the situation, instead of working to de-escalate it and work through some sort of resolution to the situation,” CCFP director Ari Ingel said.
“The misleading and fallacious memes that are being posted from people that have no real concept of what is happening there and are not experts on the conflict are just making a horrible situation far worse,” he said.
“The open letter is also to inform the public that Hamas is playing a leading role in this violence,” Ingel said.
“While we may have differing views on whether the evictions are legitimate or not legitimate, that doesn’t take away from Hamas firing these missiles indiscriminately at civilian populations in Israel, which affects Arabs and Jews,” the director said. “People need to call on [Hamas] to stop firing missiles and stop inflaming the situation.”
Last Wednesday, Gal Gadot released a carefully worded statement on her social media accounts decrying the war and violence, using rather generic language and not assigning blame. However, her words ignited a backlash and she disabled comments on her Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Her statement read: “My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free, safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”
Her words received a great deal of attention. The Pnai Plus entertainment website headlined an article about the controversy: “‘Wonder Woman wake up!’ How Gal Gadot became a public enemy,” among many others who criticized the superstar.
Hannah Brown contributed to this report.
Read the original article here.