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Director Julian Schnabel Rejects Calls to Disinvite Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler From Movie Premiere Over Israel Ties
In Venice, Italy, on Sept. 3, 2025, Julian Schnabel attends the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award 2025 and the ”In the Hand of Dante” red carpet during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. Photo: Luca Carlino via Reuters Connect
Award-winning American filmmaker and artist Julian Schnabel rejected efforts by anti-Israel activists to disinvite Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler, stars of his new film “In the Hand of Dante,” from the 82nd Venice Film Festival because of their ties to Israel.
Before the festival started, anti-Israel activists under the banner Venice4Palestine released a statement urging festival organizers to withdraw invitations to Butler, Gadot, “and any artist and celebrity who publicly and actively supports the genocide.”
“We wonder how we can pay tribute to figures like Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot, protagonists of a film out of competition, who ideologically and materially support Israel’s political and military conduct?” they added.
Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera confirmed that Butler and Gadot were not disinvited, but neither of them attended the festival this year.
Gadot is a native of Petah Tikva and former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces who has expressed avid support for her home country before and after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She has been spending the summer in Israel and a representative for the actress said she “was never able nor was ever confirmed to attend the Venice Film Festival.”
Butler attended the Friends of the IDF Western Region Gala in Los Angeles in 2018, but has not made any public comments about Israel since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
“I think there’s no reason to boycott artists,” Schnabel said on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference for “In the Hand of Dante,” before the film’s out of competition premiere that evening at the Venice Film Festival. He was responding to a question about boycott efforts by Venice4Palestine against Butler and Gadot. “I selected those actors for their merits as actors, and they did an extraordinary job in the film, and that’s about it,” he added. “I think we should talk about the movie rather than this issue.”
“In the Hand of Dante” is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Nick Tosches. The film follows the story of a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” and jumps between the 14th and 21st centuries. Oscar Isaac plays both Tosches and Dante. The film also stars Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Sabrina Impacciatore, Louis Cancelmi, and Franco Nero.
The movie received a 9 1/2-minute ovation after its world premiere on Wednesday night at the festival. Schnabel also received Venice’s Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award on Wednesday night in a ceremony held before the premiere. The award is given to someone who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.
The 82nd Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 27-Sept. 6.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.