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British Actors Union Under Fire After Releasing Anti-Israel Statement About Gaza War
Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to what they say is a tunnel used by Hamas terrorists during a ground operation in a location given as Gaza, in this handout image released Nov. 9, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Members of the entertainment industry have accused the British union for performing artists called Equity of releasing a biased and “offensive” statement that included “antisemitic dogwhistles” while condemning Israel’s military campaign against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement published on Nov. 15, the union, which represents 47,000 performers and creative workers in the United Kingdom, accused Israel of “bombing, occupation, and apartheid,” and demanded the British government “stand up against genocide.” The union additionally called for an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza and for the return of the roughly 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the terror group’s onslaught across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The union said artists are “frightened of censorship for expressing opinions on the conflict which are rooted in peace, justice, and dignity.” The statement added: “The actions of the Israeli state or Hamas cannot be used to stoke fires of hate, silence peaceful dissent, or divide communities anywhere in our country.”
More than a dozen people in the UK entertainment industry, including current and former members of Equity, told Variety that they are disappointed in the union’s comments. One Israeli member of Equity, who preferred to stay anonymous, told the magazine that the union’s “clear, one-sided statement and total dismissal of ‘my side’s’ pain and rights” has made them fear for their well-being. “I wouldn’t be surprised if people took liberty to act on [their] prejudices, thinking they have the organization’s blessing to discriminate,” the union member added.
There has been a global spike in antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, including in Europe, where several countries have experienced a record number of antisemitic incidents.
“This body [Equity] who purports to passionately espouse tenets of inclusivity and diversity, claiming to heal the world through artistic endeavor, made the very conscious decision to include unequivocal antisemitic dogwhistles in their statement,” said Leo Pearlman, co-founder of transatlantic production company Fulwell 73
A Jewish actor who left Equity years ago told Variety that the union has become “utterly redundant and useless and something to battle against as a Jewish actor.” She added that Equity “has this huge responsibility and power and it’s so misused and so upsetting as a minority within this industry.” Another former Equity member who is related to Holocaust survivors said: “I personally found [the statement] offensive because words like ‘genocide’ are so misappropriated. It’s really triggering.”
“Maybe they should try and live up to their name and do their job before straying into areas [in which] they’re even less qualified to cause damage,” said another unnamed former Equity member who is also a Hollywood actor.
The declaration was Equity’s second statement about the Israel-Hamas war. In the union’s first, published on Oct. 17, it also accused Israel of apartheid, as well as an “occupation [that] deprives Palestinians of their human rights, driving continued violence” and the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people for the crimes of Hamas.”
“We condemn those politicians in the UK who seek to characterize Palestinian solidarity as extremist, and recognize that there can be no apologist for antisemitism or Islamophobia,” the union added.
Jewish actress Maureen Lipman said that she left Equity years ago “because of their slanted bias during the [former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy] Corbyn era on the BDS [anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement] and on their obsessive focus on the Middle East to the exclusion of every other conflict in the world.” She said regarding the union’s latest statement about the Israel-Hamas war: “An actors union with no empathy. The irony.”
In both statements, Equity argued it needed to comment on the Israel-Hamas war, saying that since 1930, it has “undertaken international solidarity work to advance the cause of the trade union movement, and in the interests of artists facing oppression.”
“Our longstanding involvement in the Middle East dates back almost 40 years, and the events of this month have demanded that we engage in as practical a way as possible to the threats faced by artists and working people in Israel and Palestine,” the union said.
In 2021, the union supported a rally where a number of attendees held antisemitic signs, including one that showed a picture of Jesus carrying a cross and the text: “Do not let them do the same thing today again.”
The post British Actors Union Under Fire After Releasing Anti-Israel Statement About Gaza War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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