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‘Enough With the Lies’: Over 400 Hollywood Figures Condemn Anti-Israel Misinformation, Incitement After DC Shooting
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul lays flowers in honor of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, US, May 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
More than 400 members of the entertainment industry have signed an open letter denouncing “extremist rhetoric” and the spread of misinformation about Israel in response to last week’s murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC.
“We, the undersigned, are saying enough! Enough with the lies, and enough with the extremism,” states the open letter released by the non-profit organization Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) on Thursday.
The document was also published in response to several open letters from members of the entertainment and literature industries that accused Israel of “genocide” while criticizing Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists responsible for the deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Thursday’s open letter debunks several false claims about Israel related to the Gaza war and condemns anti-Israel activists for promoting “the antisemitic blood libel that the Jewish state – and all the Jews that support Israel – are bloodthirsty, intentionally targeting civilians, and committing ‘genocide.’”
“We reject the anti-Israel movement co-opting every social justice cause — outrageously claiming that to stand with the LGBTQIA+ community, or with anti-racist, anti-colonialist, anti-Islamophobic and anti-antisemitic movements, is to stand against Israel,” the letter says. “This is all done to paint Israel — and Jews around the world — as embodying the world’s ultimate evils. This is antisemitism.”
CCFP’s open letter also singles out celebrities for unknowingly assisting in the spread of anti-Israel propaganda and false information. “Some well-meaning celebrities and public figures have been manipulated by this constant stream of misinformation, which they have also helped to amplify,” the letter states. “On May 21, 2025, we saw that these lies can have deadly consequences … these claims are amplified by the media, in addition to celebrities who share this disinformation to their millions of followers on social media.”
Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were gunned down and killed on the evening of May 21 while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. The victims were colleagues at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, and were soon-t0-be engaged. The alleged lone gunman, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. An FBI affidavit supporting Rodriguez’s federal criminal charges stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
Rodriguez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, among other charges, and several voices – including 15 Israeli lawmakers and Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar – have called on authorities to pursue the death penalty against the alleged shooter.
Studio executives, actors, actresses, television personalities, musicians, and songwriters are among those who signed CCFP’s open letter on Thursday. The signatories include Uzo Aduba, Jerry O’Connell, Patricia Heaton, Rebecca De Mornay, Debra Messing, Julianna Margulies, Mayim Bialik, Sharon Osbourne, Mattel Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz, Matisyahu, songwriter Diane Warren, and Disturbed lead singer David Draiman.
CCFP said the open letter is the first of its kind because it is calling for the entertainment community to “unequivocally condemn the anti-Israel movement’s role in scapegoating and endangering Jews around the globe.”
“We call on all our colleagues to reject this extremist rhetoric and the spread of misinformation so that we can all work toward a future in which all Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace and dignity,” the letter states in conclusion.
Saban Capital Group Chairman and CEO Haim Saban, who also signed the open letter, said it is “a plea for truth, for accountability, and for responsibility — especially from those with powerful platforms.”
“When public figures accuse Israel of genocide, call for intifada, or claim Jews are colonizers, they may not understand the history they’re invoking — but the people who act on those words often do,” he noted.
“History repeats itself: peddling lies about Jews has deadly consequences,” Bialik said in a released statement. “For the past two years, public figures and influencers with millions of followers have consistently promoted fallacious and menacing anti-Israel propaganda masquerading as advocacy. This stream of lies against the Jewish people and the Jewish ancestral homeland has now – unsurprisingly to anyone watching closely – turned deadly in the United States. This moment requires public figures to use their platforms responsibly. We implore these individuals to lend their voices to those of moral clarity, peace and tolerance, instead of division, distortion and delegitimization.”
The Capital Jewish Museum was closed in the days after the deadly shooting but reopened on Thursday with a ceremony in memory of Lischinsky and Milgrim. The reopening ceremony was attended by Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, interfaith leaders, and local officials, among others.
“It is not up to the Jewish community to say ‘support us.’ It is up to all of us to denounce antisemitism in all forms,” Bowser said while speaking at the event. “We know one of the goals in the museum is to inspire visitors to think about our own place in history, and each day, we all have a choice about how we show up … So, one of my messages to our community here in DC is for people of all faiths to keep showing up for the Jewish community and to keep showing up for the Capital Jewish Museum.”
The post ‘Enough With the Lies’: Over 400 Hollywood Figures Condemn Anti-Israel Misinformation, Incitement After DC Shooting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hostage Deal talks Stalled as Hamas Rejects New Israeli Framework – Report
US President Donald Trump and Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attend a signing ceremony in Doha, Qatar, May 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
i24 News – i24NEWS’s diplomatic affairs correspondent, Amichai Stein, reported Sunday evening that negotiations over a potential hostage deal have hit a standstill.
According to political sources, “the negotiations are stalled, Hamas is refusing the new framework presented by Israel.”
Throughout the day, no direct negotiation meetings were held. Instead, the small security cabinet is set to convene this evening to discuss the state of the talks.
There is also speculation of a potential meeting between Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and US President Donald Trump to address the impasse and broader regional dynamics.
In parallel, Arab diplomats have reportedly issued a warning to Israel regarding its plan to construct a “humanitarian city” in Gaza. According to sources, diplomats cautioned that the initiative could harm the fragile fabric of the Abraham Accords and inflame regional tensions.
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Iran: ‘Israel Will Pay the Price’ for Allegedly Trying to Kill Pezeshkian
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was slightly injured in the leg during an Israeli airstrike, according to a report on Sunday by the Iranian news agency Fars, prompting Iran to launch a widespread probe to root out suspected moles that infiltrated the Islamic Republic’s highest ranks.
Al Jazeera cited an unnamed Iranian official who said, “The assassination attempt on President Pezeshkian will not go unanswered – Israel will pay the price.”
According to Fars, which has ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the attack took place on the morning of Monday, June 16, while a meeting of the Supreme National Security Council was held on the lower floors of a building in western Tehran. In addition to the Iranian president, Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the head of the judiciary Mohseni Ajei, as well as other senior regime officials were attending this meeting.
Six bombs or missiles targeted the entry and exit points of the building in order to block evacuation routes and disrupt air circulation, the report said. This operation is said to have been inspired by the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last year. Following the explosions, power was cut on that floor, but the leaders managed to escape through an emergency exit prepared in advance.
Pezeshkian and several other officials sustained minor leg injuries during the evacuation, according to the agency. Given the accuracy of the information used in the attack, the media outlet reports that authorities are investigating the possibility of collaboration with Israel.
Official confirmation and reactions
A few days earlier, a high-ranking military leader in the Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, had stated on state television that Israel had “attacked six locations where the Supreme National Security Council had gathered, but none of its members had suffered even minor injuries.”
Pezeshkian had previously accused Israel of having attempted to assassinate him. “They tried, yes,” he told American journalist Tucker Carlson during an interview last week. “They acted accordingly, but they failed.”
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Hezbollah Violates Ceasefire 7 Times a Day on Average, IDF Figures Show
A drone view of buildings in Lebanon, next to the Israel-Lebanon border, following the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, as seen from Metula in northern Israel, Dec. 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
i24 News – The Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah violate the ceasefire agreement with Israel more than seven times a day on average, according to Israel Defense Forces data obtained by i24NEWS and made public for the first time on Saturday.
Israel has flagged upward of 1,200 violations by Hezbollah in its report to the US-led five-country monitoring panel tasked with supervising the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.
Of these, 650 violations were relayed to the Lebanese army for handling, while the rest of the times the IDF responded by attacking the violators.
The Lebanese army has identified 390 additional violations on its own initiative and filed a report saying that it had handled them.
Thus official data shows that the Lebanese army handled 52% of all violations, and 440 of the targets Israel flagged by Israel.
The majority of the infractions the Lebanese army manages to stem are concentrated in the south of the country.
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