It turns out Jews are lying when they say that Hollywood
is anti-Israel. The more powerful Jews get the greater
amount of accusations of antisemitism is lodged against
non-Jews.
A link to an article that applies Frantz Fanon to the
Israel/Palestine war is farcical. Fanon never mentions Jews
in his books because he wants to appeal to Jews with his
apocalyptic anti-white rants. Jews consider it a Jewish
victory when Blacks or Muslims attack whites, seeing it
as An Enemy Attacking An Enemy, and Fanon appealed to
this. True, Fanon's theories could be stripped from the
man himself, to be made useful, but it's doubtful his
name belongs to resistance to Israel.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/how-america-entertainment-industry-manufactured-silence-gazaHow America's entertainment industry manufactured silence on Gaza
Artists, actors and production staff tell Middle East Eye that
the industries once dedicated to free and creative expression are
now stifling and suppressing Palestine solidarity
Free speech once meant everything to the US arts and
entertainment industries.
But since Israel declared war on Gaza, artists, actors and
production staff have alleged that there is a concerted campaign
by industry executives to silence solidarity with beleaguered
Palestinians.
Dozens of workers at every level of the arts and entertainment
world: from actors and dancers to carpenters, set dressers,
animators, composers and screenwriters have told Middle East Eye
that they have been punished for speaking out on Israel's war on
Gaza which has claimed more than 57,700 lives since October 2023.
The argument that the entertainment world, including Hollywood,
had turned its back on free speech and supporting oppressed
peoples was on full display earlier this year when the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to condemn an attack on
the Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal.
In February, Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank assaulted
and detained Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary
No Other Land, an attack that Ballal's co-director Basel Adra
suggested might be "revenge on us for making the movie".
Even though the Academy had recognised Ballal's work with an
Oscar merely weeks before, it refused to condemn Israel's
actions, issuing only a vague statement about "reports of
violence" against Ballal and condemning "violence of this kind
anywhere in the world".
A few weeks later, reports surfaced that high-powered studio
executives had attempted to silence Snow White star Rachel Zegler
over an August 2024 tweet where she wrote, "and always remember,
free Palestine".
Zegler's refusal to retract her statement of solidarity
reportedly infuriated the film's producers, who mounted a public
campaign against her, blaming Zegler for the film's lacklustre
box-office numbers.
The attempted suppression of both Ballal and Zegler's voices are
just two recent examples of how power brokers in the US arts and
entertainment industries have collaborated with supporters of
Israel's war to manufacture silence about what several countries,
as well as many international rights groups and experts, now
qualify as genocide.
No Other Land shows Israeli occupation cannot be whitewashed
The ease with which a climate of fear and repression has been
created in an industry ostensibly dedicated to free and creative
expression reflects that, by design, the arts industry is just as
effective at facilitating repression as fostering creativity.
Out of the dozens of workers MEE spoke to, some of them have had
major roles in superhero and horror movie franchises, while
others have featured in shows on networks including HBO, Prime,
and Fox.
None of them, however, are "A-list" performers whose firing or
blacklisting would be front-page entertainment news.
Their lack of name recognition leaves them vulnerable to the type
of behind-the-scenes repression that’s become commonplace since
October 2023.
All of them have been organising in solidarity with Palestine
over the past year, and almost all of them spoke on condition of
anonymity, citing fears of retaliation from management, union
leaders, colleagues, and prominent pro-Zionists connected with
the industry.
The fear of retaliation is a critical element in the
manufacturing of silence, and it's a fear generated by countless
instances of blacklisting, firing, doxing, harassment, and
intimidation of anti-genocide voices in the arts since last
October. Repression from the top
Repression of pro-Palestinian voices in arts and entertainment
starts at the very top of the corporate ladder, the workers said.
After decades of consolidation, film and TV production are mainly
dominated by a small number of corporations - including the likes
of Amazon, Disney, and Netflix.
The same dynamics afflict the performing arts: on Broadway, 31 of
Broadway's 41 theatres are controlled by three dynastic
corporations. Other major performing arts centres, like New
York’s Lincoln Center, are run as nonprofits with several
pro-Israel board members and donors - such as Mike Bloomberg and
Bill Ackman.
'You can win an Oscar and never work again. You can have a
career taken away immediately'
- Actor and organiser SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire
Across the arts, a tiny group of executives and philanthropists
wield near-complete authority, and this authority is used to
freeze out artists critical of Israel both through their
programming choices and their capacity to surveil, harass, and
intimidate pro-Palestine art workers.
A few days after the 7 October attacks on southern Israel, more
than 700 industry executives and celebrities released an open
letter calling on workers in the entertainment industry to "speak
out forcefully against Hamas… as Israel takes the necessary steps
to defend its citizens."
Signatories included top executives at Warner Records, Electronic
Arts, Disney, Atlantic Records, Paramount Pictures, National
Geographic, and a host of others.
The next month, in one of the highest-profile examples of
corporate retribution for pro-Palestinian speech, actor Melissa
Barrera was fired from her role in an upcoming "Scream" movie for
social media posts criticising Israel's campaign in Gaza.
The message from the top was clear: artists who speak out against
Israel's actions will not work again.
Since mid-2024, industry executives and their underlings have
made good on that message, aggressively surveilling arts and
entertainment workers, and quickly retaliating against any who
criticise Israel, the workers said.
Members of Dancers for Palestine protest Israel's Batsheva Dance
Company Members of Dancers for Palestine protest Israel's
Batsheva Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March
2025 (Zachary Schulman Photography)
Artists in film and television described a "blacklist culture"
rife with firing and doxing.
One TV writer told MEE that leaked communications from a
Hollywood PR company told staff to "look at social media" for
pro-Palestine speech before hiring anyone.
The approach mirrors the Trump administration's stated policy to
deny or rescind visas, particularly those of students, for
pro-Palestine speech on their social media accounts.
In the world of dance, one East Coast-based dancer said that
“there is a literal blacklist going around in a certain circles,
and there's a doxing doc”.
Another actor said that management are known to engage in
"collaborative efforts to get agencies to drop [artists]".
"They said that in one case: famously, a PR team emailed their
team to drop any of their clients who criticise Israel." Who
carries out the orders?
Public relations teams and talent agencies are part of the middle
layer of management that are often tasked with the direct work of
surveilling and silencing artists who speak out against Israel's
war on Gaza.
This middle layer includes casting and PR agencies, as well as
the managers and agents whose function is ostensibly to represent
and advocate for art workers as they build their careers.
For actors and writers, these agents and managers are essential
for finding work, or even getting the interviews and auditions
necessary to fight for a job.
'No one has to fire you, you can just never be hired again
for unspoken reasons'
- Dancers for Palestine
Multiple actors MEE spoke with described managers and agents
instructing them not to speak out against Israel's war, and many
said they had lost representation since they began speaking up,
largely on social media, in support of Palestine.
A film and theatre composer said they were dropped by their
talent agency shortly after they began posting about Palestine.
Amin El Gamal, a member of SAG-AFTRA (the largest US union
representing film, television, and radio actors) said that what
makes this middle level of repression particularly effective is
that it is "impossible to prove".
El Gamal, who has landed TV roles on major networks, including
HBO, Showtime, and Fox over the past decade and is also a member
of the solidarity formation, Entertainment Labor for Palestine
(EL4P), said: "They don't say [they dropped you] because of
Palestine. They give other excuses [such as] ‘we’re not a good
fit anymore'."
As another Hollywood-based SAG-AFTRA member who works in both
film and television put it, "If I'm being vocal and I lose my
agent, they don't have to tell me it's because I'm being vocal.”
Colin Buckingham, another New York-based actor who works
primarily in theatre and television, described losing
representation because of what their manager called the
"sensitive nature" of his social media posts.
This murky type of repression, where workers are quietly frozen
out of the industry, points toward specific vulnerabilities that
artists face.
Dancers active in the solidarity group Dancers for Palestine
(D4P) explained that in dance, as in film and television, "No one
has to fire you, you can just never be hired again for unspoken
reasons. There's cases where I didn't get jobs and I don't know
if it's because I was blacklisted."
An actor and organiser of the union solidarity group "SAG-AFTRA
Members for Ceasefire" described a parallel sense of fear even
for artists who achieve success in the industry. "You can win an
Oscar and never work again. You can have a career taken away
immediately," they said.
MEE reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment but did not receive a
response by time of publication. Unions against solidarity
Given the general sense of precarity in the industry, one might
expect that workers in film and television, two of the most
unionised sectors of the arts world, would rely on union
leadership for defence from retaliation - especially after the
massive displays of solidarity during the massive 2023 actors'
and writers' strikes.
Arts and entertainment unions tend to operate as partners with
management in the industry, even when management’s programme
involves suppressing worker voices.
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire march in October 2024 to protest
one year of Israel's war on Gaza. Theater Workers for a
Ceasefire march in October 2024 to protest one year of Israel's
war on Gaza. (Photo supplied by Theater Workers for a Ceasefire)
[Click and drag to move]
As a result, as one SAG member put it, "there hasn’t been any
protection from the union… even when their own members are facing
professional repercussions".
Based on the testimony of workers MEE spoke with, union leaders
in arts of entertainment often serve as junior partners in the
work of silencing pro-Palestine artists.
That’s not to say that union leaders have been silent.
In the days after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks, union leaders
in film and entertainment rushed to issue statements in support
of Israel, but a year later and almost without exception, their
solidarity has not extended to Palestinians - or to union members
who oppose Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
El Gamal, the actor who also heads SAG-AFTRA's Middle East North
Africa committee, expressed surprise and disappointment at union
leaders’ intransigence. He described excitement during the
general strikes at feeling "like the forefront of a solidarity
movement against big tech and automation".
A television writer and Writers Guild member described the "joy"
and "feeling like family" that came from organising and picketing
during the strikes, but said that since 7 October "all of that is
out the window."
Another SAG member echoed that notion saying "solidarity [within
the Hollywood unions] has whittled away."
"We’re in a video game strike right now, but I feel no interest
in going to the picket lines. I'm not going to scab, but I really
could care less. [Union leaders] have ignored the most vulnerable
members of the union. We’ve really undermined the solidarity
built in the historic strike."
In this way, the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices serves a
dual function for management, both silencing critics of Israel's
war and weakening the broader labour movement in the industry.
In some cases, union leaders have not only refused to make
statements in support of Palestine or opposition to genocide but
have actively suppressed pro-Palestine members of their own
unions.
One member of IATSE, the union representing behind-the-scenes
entertainment workers from costume designers to animators, who
had worked with union members to bring a pro-Palestine motion to
the floor of a meeting, described experiencing "repression,
bullying, misinformation, abuse of power" from their local
union's elected leaders.
They noted that it appeared pro-Israel union members had been
granted access to the union's membership email list to spread
misinformation about the genocide in Palestine and share "crazy
Islamophobic content".
IATSE members also reported that union leaders had used their
access to member communications to "spread scare tactics" by
telling members that if a union came out against genocide, it
could jeopardise the entire local membership's ability to find
work in the industry.
MEE reached out to IATSE for comment but did not receive a
response by time of publication. When unions collude with
imperialism
Multiple union members noted with bitterness that while SAG
President Fran Drescher was a firebrand speaking out for unions
during the strikes, she also reportedly had a history of raising
money for the Israeli military.
Hollywood unions have long supported Israeli occupation and the
oppression of Palestinians, and US unions have offered support to
Israel since the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917. This is
in keeping with the support that the AFL-CIO (the largest
federation of US labour unions) has long shown for US imperialism
writ large, from the war on Vietnam to the US-backed coup in
Chile.
Throughout the Cold War, America’s imperialist unionism ran
parallel to Israel’s labour Zionism and the apartheid-era union
movement in South Africa, which organised for a time under the
slogan, “Workers of the World: Unite and Fight for a White South
Africa”.
In that context, the refusal of union leaders in the arts and
entertainment industries to show solidarity with Palestine is not
a failure of leadership so much as an expression of a long
tradition in the American labour movement, wherein the concept of
solidarity is often intertwined with a powerful belief in the
settler colonial project.
The result, as one SAG member said, is a “disgusting” version of
unionism that’s “the definition of racism, really upholding the
history of anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab racism
propagated by our industry.”
Along with this tradition of America-first, imperialist unionism,
there’s a tradition specific to Hollywood of unions working with
management and the government to suppress anti-imperialist
voices.
Ronald Reagan actually got his start in politics as the SAG
president in the 1940s. He used his role as an elected union
leader to get artists associated with communism and radical
politics in general blacklisted and silenced, serving as a
confidential FBI informant and naming names before a
congressional committee on communist activity.
At every level, from the CEOs at the top to union leaders who are
supposed to represent their workers, these industries can pivot
from marketing their newest sitcom to silencing critics of Israel
without altering their day-to-day operations.
The suppression of pro-Palestine voices in arts and entertainment
is - while unprecedented in its intensity - as one WGA member put
it, “to be a propaganda tool for imperialism even beyond
Zionism”. Groundswell of solidarity
Despite all that, and despite efforts at every level of the
industry to manufacture silence around Israel’s genocide, every
worker Middle East Eye spoke to is organising in support of
Palestine, either within their union or with other artists.
Since the winter, theatre workers like myself have organised
through Theater Workers for Ceasefire (TW4C) to build support for
the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel (PACBI), the cultural wing of the BDS campaign.
Since September, those efforts have borne fruit as 27 theatres
and theatre organisations from around the US have endorsed the
PACBI campaign, committing to boycott Israeli institutions that
are complicit in the ongoing war and what organisers call
"Israeli apartheid".
The wave of PACBI endorsements was unprecedented in US theatre
over the 20 years of the BDS campaign, though one fellow TW4C
organiser cautioned that while “there is momentum” for Palestine
solidarity organising in the arts, it still has to face the
obstacle of pro-Israel board members and donors “cut off” from
the actual work of arts organisations, but who can wield
influence to “hold theatres hostage”.
Organisers with Dancers for Palestine (D4P) say they face similar
challenges. In response, they’ve often taken street actions and
demonstrations to bring attention to Israel’s longstanding
practice of using the arts - and dance, in particular, to
“artwash”.
In late September, D4P organised a demonstration outside of New
York’s 92Y, which was hosting Israel’s Batsheva dance company,
which has long served as cultural ambassadors for Israel.
Dancers for Palestine contingent at a New York rally demanding an
arms embargo against Israel Dancers for Palestine contingent at a
New York rally demanding an arms embargo against Israel during a
'Not another Bomb' protest in February 2025 (Nadav Spiegelman)
Pro-Israel sentiment is particularly powerful in the dance world,
one of the D4P members explained, where there’s “a long history
connecting Zionism and the development of Israeli modern dance”.
They noted that this history goes back to the Cold War, when the
US “was using many types of art, including modern dance, for
propaganda tours, sending modern dance groups to Israel”.
One of these tours resulted in renowned choreographer Martha
Graham going to Israel and founding Batsheva, one of Israel’s
“main cultural exports”. For this reason, the D4P organisers say
it’s critical to maintain a visible presence at dance events that
are designed to normalise this strain of Israeli culture for
American audiences.
In film and television, SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire and IATSE
for Palestine have worked to push pro-Palestine statements in
their unions, and to have a presence at pro-Palestine
demonstrations and events.
Getting union leaders to even acknowledge their concerns has
been, they said, maddeningly difficult, but they are organising
to apply pressure while working behind the scenes to build
support for Palestine among colleagues in the industry.
One WGA member said he feels it’s important to keep finding ways
to build support for Palestine, sometimes just in one-on-one
conversation, even if “all that’s doing is throwing sand in the
gears”.
One way that filmmakers have tried to throw "sand in the gears"
is by creating space for alternatives to Zionist-funded,
pro-Israel media.
In New York, in protest of the New York Film Festival’s ties to
pro-Israel donors, a group of filmworkers organised the first
ever New York Counter Film Festival (NYCFF). The idea, one of the
organisers explain, is that rather than just ask filmmakers to
withdraw their work from the festival in protest, NYCFF would
offer them alternate venues to show their work.
They also approached critics and film writers, asking them not to
cover New York Film Festival. NYCFF managed to get more than 20
critics and writers to pledge not to cover or publicise the New
York Film Festival.
'I auditioned for lots of terroristy parts. I’m kind of
disgusted with myself, but I felt like there was not a career
for me unless I accepted a part like this'
- Amin El Gamal, actor
The founders of Watermelon Pictures, a film distribution company
focused on increasing representation of Muslim and Southwest
Asian and North Africa (Swana) stories, see their mission as
providing another alternative to an industry and culture where
Muslim and Swana characters are often limited to stereotype and
caricature.
One of these founders, Badie Ali, said that while for years, the
American arts and entertainment industries “have done a wonderful
job dehumanising people from [the Middle East]”, Watermelon
Pictures seeks to produce stories that normalise depictions of
these minorities.
His goal, he said, is to help audiences see their connection to
the people of Palestine and the broader region. “We have to take
control of the narrative,” he said. “Just understanding the
difficulty of just getting water [in Palestine]…imagine going to
that extent just to get your kids food.”
El Gamal, echoed Ali’s message about the importance of
normalisation: both Hollywood’s normalisation of anti-Palestinian
racism and the need to use art to normalise Muslim and Swana
stories.
He said that when he first got started as an actor, he was more
complacent.
"I auditioned for lots of terroristy parts. I’m kind of disgusted
with myself, but I felt like there was not a career for me unless
I accepted a part like this," El Gamal said.
He noted that Hollywood’s normalisation of Islamophobia and
racism doesn't happen by accident, citing the long-established
partnerships between the CIA, Department of Defense, and
Hollywood production companies.
With that history in mind then, the artists organising for
Palestine across their industries aren’t just combatting
repressive management. They’re standing up to the propaganda wing
of America’s imperialist project, a project which is itself
designed to silence any who oppose it.
Like the broader movement for a free Palestine, this movement of
artists for Palestine continues to grow despite the obstacles in
its way.
Hollywood bosses ruthlessly support Israel