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Javier Bardem Accuses Israel of ‘Crimes Against Humanity,’ Condemns ‘Unconditional Support’ for Jewish State
Javier Bardem receives the Donostia award during the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, on September 20, 2024. Photo: OOLMedia via Reuters Connect
Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem gave a lengthy speech decrying Israel’s military actions against the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip during a press conference at the San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF) in Spain on Friday.
The “Dune: Part Two” star attended the SSIFF to accept his 2023 Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday night after he was unable to attend the festival last year because of the SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood. When asked at a press conference on Friday about politics and Israel, he began by saying in Spanish: “What is happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable, is terrible, is dehumanizing. I believe that the government of Israel is the most radical government in the history of Israel.”
The “No Country for Old Men” actor then accused Israel of “committing crimes again humanity [and] crimes in international law.” He said the “terrible and condemnable” terrorist attacks orchestrated by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7 in Israel “do not justify the global massive punishment that the Palestinian people is suffering.”
“The impunity that the current Israeli government enjoys in its actions in Gaza and the West Bank has to change,” he said. “I think that countries like the United States, Germany, and England especially have to reconsider their logic of behavior and unconditional support when we see human rights crimes against international law such as prohibiting [the entry of] food, water, medicine, and electricity. As UNICEF says, [it] is a war against children and continues this trauma for generations. [We] cannot be impassive against that.”
“We are seeing that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, in an attempt to avoid going to prison due to the corruption accusations and because of how he hijacked the judicial system in Israel, is taking this aggression to levels that are already starting to affect the entire Middle East,” he also told reporters at the press conference.
Bardem — who has two children with his wife, actress Penelope Cruz – said he knows nothing he says will change anything about the situation in the Middle East. However, he thinks society “is beginning to understand that it is legitimate to criticize any government and it has nothing to do with, in this case, the false accusation of antisemitism.”
He stated that the world has a “moral and ethical right to denounce that which we consider unjust.” He also claimed that the current Israeli government under the helm of Netanyahu is an “ultra-nationalist, extreme right-wing” government that is not representative of the entire Jewish community or Israeli society.
“It is our responsibility, you as the media and I as a citizen, to observe and denounce those situations that we consider unacceptable, and to ask the International Criminal Court, the international justice of the United Nations, to condemn and judge those responsible. In this case, Netanyahu and Hamas,” he said. “To give unconditional support is nothing more than to give wings to the abuse of international and human law.”
After his statement, Bardem was given a round of applause from the journalists attending the press conference, Deadline reported.
The post Javier Bardem Accuses Israel of ‘Crimes Against Humanity,’ Condemns ‘Unconditional Support’ for Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.