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New York Times Opinion Piece Paved Way for Oscar Night Comparison of Israel to Nazis
Director Jonathan Glazer, of the United Kingdom, poses with the Oscar for Best International Feature Film for “The Zone of Interest” in the Oscars photo room at the 96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US, March 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
On Oscar night, British director Jonathan Glazer used his movie about the Holocaust to condemn Israel’s “ongoing attack on Gaza” as an example of the same “dehumanization” that characterized the Nazis’ genocide against the Jewish people.
Glazer was widely — and appropriately — condemned by Jewish leaders, thinkers, and organizations who found his remarks while accepting the Oscar for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday repugnant.
Less noticed, but just as outrageous, was a New York Times op-ed published on Saturday previewing Glazer’s argument.
The opinion article came from David Klion, a writer whose views are so loathsome that I have long had him blocked on X/Twitter.
Klion writes about Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, contending that it “finds something new and profoundly unsettling to say about the Holocaust” and “also accomplishes something more relevant to the present, forcing viewers to confront difficult questions about our own proximity to atrocity, and succeeding as a bracing reminder of how art can alert and sensitize us to the historical moment we inhabit.”
Klion writes that the movie “depicts the life of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and his family at their handsome estate just outside the walls of the death camp.”
He continues: “Watching The Zone of Interest as US-made bombs rained down on civilian neighborhoods in Gaza, I couldn’t help but dwell on the banal acceptance of these mass civilian casualties that I’ve witnessed closer to home.”
The op-ed goes on to complain about “Israel’s military siege against the Palestinians.”
It goes on further: “For Jews like myself, who publicly oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza, one of the hardest realities to confront is the fact that plenty of people in our communities are aware that the Israeli offensive is killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom are children. But in the wake of the gruesome Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israelis that touched off the war, many people we are close to are not just incurious about Israel’s assault on Gaza but are willing to justify it without apology.”
In case anyone missed the point, Klion spiked the football about his piece in a March 9 post on X: “Proud that my first print appearance in NYT is, among other things, an argument that what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to a genocide.”
The widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism includes as an example “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” That practice — also known as “Holocaust inversion” —is deeply problematic.
As the World Jewish Congress (WJC) has explained, “Any alleged wrongdoings on Israel’s part cannot be compared to Nazi crimes during the Holocaust. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is a territorial and political one, whereas the Holocaust was the attempt to systematically annihilate European Jewry. Despite the unfortunate outbreak of violence during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian population has grown by all metrics, and is projected to continue doing so. To compare this to the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is preposterous and diminishes the pain of those who have suffered during the conflict.”
The WJC also quotes Deborah Lipstadt, now the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism: those who accuse Israel of genocide and other such crimes “are making a false comparison which elevates by a factor of a zillion any wrongdoings Israel might have done, and lessens by a factor of a zillion what the Germans did.”
It should be obvious that the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust and Israel’s just war of self-defense against Hamas are nothing like one another. In the Holocaust, the Nazis intentionally set out to kill all the Jews, who had done nothing wrong. In the Gaza war, the Israelis are being careful to minimize civilian casualties in an operation aimed at uprooting an evil terrorist militia that is dedicated to killing the Jews and wiping Israel off the map. If there’s a parallel to be made with the Nazis, the parallel is with Hamas, not with Israel.
Glazer’s comments generated substantial pushback. Klion’s New York Times piece, on the other hand, published on the Jewish sabbath, went widely unremarked upon in the mainstream Jewish community. Perhaps the Times opinion pages have gone so far off the anti-Israel deep end that they’ve lost their capacity to shock anyone. Or perhaps all the pro-Israel readers have already canceled their subscriptions. Whatever the reason, Klion and whatever Times editor made the bad decision to publish his article deserve a place with Glazer among the “Jews like myself, who publicly oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.” I guess it’s better to know who these people are than to have them lurking unidentified in our midst. May they come to realize their errors, speedily and in our days.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
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Pro-Hamas Encampment at Drexel University Pushes School Into Lockdown
“Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Drexel University. Photo: X/Twitter
A “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” was erected suddenly at Drexel University in Philadelphia over the weekend, forcing school officials to lock down the campus to protect it from a flood of non-students who joined the demonstration.
“This demonstration has already proved intolerably disruptive to normal university operations and has raised serious concerns about the conduct of some participants, including distressing reports and images of protesters subjecting passersby to antisemitic speech, signs, and chants,” Drexel University president John Fry said on Sunday in a letter to the campus community. “These kinds of hateful and intimidating acts must be condemned, and they cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Fry added that “it has become increasingly apparent that most of the encampment participants are outside individuals who are unaffiliated with Drexel.”
The group responsible for the demonstration, Drexel Palestine Coalition (DPC), is demanding that the school adopt the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and “terminate” its Hillel and Chabad chapters.
“These organizations must be replaced by non-Zionist Jewish ones that in no way support the ongoing genocide, occupation, or apartheid in Palestine,” DPC said in a statement posted on social media.
DPC also wants the university’s police force to be abolished, amnesty granted to any protester charged with violating school rules, and a “60 percent” reduction in Fry’s salary, the savings of which would be invested “into local community efforts such as affordable housing, co-ops, land trusts — specifically towards Black Bottom residents — and the rebuilding of Palestinian institutions such as hospitals and universities.”
Footage of the demonstration shows some aggressive behavior, including the protesters’ dismantling police barricades. According to the latest reports, there have been no arrests.
“Hillel continues to be grateful to have partners on campus who believe that a university experience should be filled with opportunities to engage thoroughly and thoughtfully around issues where there is both deep investment and deep disagreement while recognizing that a prerequisite for any such conversation is a demonstrated commitment to the safety, well being, and shared sense of belonging of all of the students, faculty, and staff who call our university home,” Drexel Hillel said on Sunday in a statement issued about the encampment.
The protesters’ demands are not the first assault on Jewish organizations at Drexel University this academic year.
Last month, the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Jewish Life was vandalized, with the culprits removing large channel letters spelling out Perelman’s name from a brick structure near the entrance to the building. The disturbing act, which occurred amid an explosion of antisemitic hate crimes across the US, was filmed by surveillance cameras, but the persons responsible cannot yet be identified because they wore masks.
“It bears repeating that vandalizing centers of Jewish life and learning, defacing property with antisemitic graffiti, or ripping mezuzot off doorposts in residence halls does not constitute any legitimate form of protests,” Fry said at the time. “Such acts are antisemitic in their intent to disrupt Jewish life and intimidate our Jewish communities, and have no place at Drexel or in our democratic society.”
Drexel University joins the list of over 100 schools where anti-Zionists have taken over sections of campus and refused to leave unless school administrators agree to condemn and boycott Israel. Other demonstrations timed to coincide with the end of the academic year petered out earlier this month, but at Drexel, which uses the quarter system, classes do not end until June 8. Because of this, the encampment there could last as many as three weeks.
In the interim, the school remains locked down, and on Monday, Fry ordered that all classes be conducted virtually.
“We will continue to provide updates regarding this situation or any changes to the university’s operations,” Fry said in Sunday’s letter. “I ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as we work toward ensuring that our campus can soon return to normal.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israeli Artists Denied US Visas Allegedly Due to Song Lyrics Condemning Hamas Leaders and Supporters
Israeli rap duo Ness Ve Stilla. Photo: YouTube screenshot
Four Israeli artists were refused visas to perform in the United States over the weekend allegedly because of controversy surrounding a song by one of the scheduled acts, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.
Rap duo Ness Ve Stilla, Lior Narkis, and Chaim Osadon, star of the kid’s show “The Crazy World of Dod Chaim,” were scheduled to perform on Sunday at an Israel solidarity concert in Florida sponsored by the Consulate-General of Israel in Miami.
Ness Ve Stilla, whose real names are Nessya Levi and Dor Soroker, told Israel’s Channel 12 that officials in the US gave them the impression that all four artists were denied visas because of the duo’s song “Harbu Darbu,” which they released last year following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. All four artists submitted one joint visa application and were therefore rejected jointly, the Israeli publication Mako reported.
In “Harbu Darbu,” Ness and Stilla call for revenge against Hamas and Hezbollah — both Iran-backed terrorist groups — and threaten model Bella Hadid, singer Dua Lipa, and former Playboy model Mia Khalifa, all of whom have condemned Israel. The rappers name Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas officials Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, saying “every dog’s day will come.”
“Everyone who planned, everyone who supported, everyone who carried out, everyone who murdered, every bad person gets his punishment in the end,” they rap in the song. Ness and Stilla also describe pro-Palestinian supporters in the song as the “Children of Amalek,” which is a reference to the ancient tribe that tried to destroy the Israelites. Ness raps: “Left, right, left, impressive how the whole country put on uniforms from the Galilee to Eilat … We brought the whole army on you and I swear there will be no forgiveness.”
“One, two, shoot,” Levi sings. “Get your asses ready, ’cause it’s the air force, feel the vibration all the way to Tel Aviv; all the girls stare at the soldiers, and that guy on the news suddenly seems handsome to me … For mom and dad, for all my friends in the front line; one for grandpa and grandma; we write their names on the shells.”
Narkis confirmed in an Instagram post on Friday that he was denied a visa to perform in Florida. He wrote that “even though I’m already here [in the United States], I am being prevented from holding the performances that were planned due to bureaucratic reasons.”
“We were promised that we will receive an artist visa that we can perform legally,” he added. “Until that moment the requested approval was not received. Unfortunately we are forced to postpone all the shows in the USA.”
Narkis eventually was able to secure permission to perform in Miami on Sunday and took to the stage at Miramar Regional Park. He also announced on Instagram that he was able to organize two concerts in Los Angeles.
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‘Jew-Haters Spice Up the Show’: Jerry Seinfeld Responds After Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt His Stand-Up Show
Jerry Seinfeld attends the premiere of Netflix’s “Unfrosted” at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/David Swanson/File Photo
One of Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up shows on Saturday night was interrupted by anti-Israel protesters who heckled the Jewish comedian for supporting Israel before being escorted out of the venue by security.
Seinfeld had two back-to-back performances in Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday. In the middle of one show, a pro-Hamas protester stood up in the audience and yelled “Free Gaza” before calling the “Seinfeld” creator a “genocide supporter,” according to TMZ, which obtained a video from the scene. The protester yelled, “How dare you support a genocide! Save the children of Gaza! No more American tax dollars for genocide!” He also shouted to the audience, “You should be ashamed of yourself! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”
Seinfeld has openly expressed support for Israel amid its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip — a military campaign that was launched in response to the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel. Two days after the attack, Seinfeld wrote in an Instagram post, “I will always stand with Israel and the Jewish people.” He also visited Israel with his family late last year to witness firsthand the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 and to meet with Israelis impacted by the Hamas attacks.
Audience members at Seinfeld’s show on Saturday night who were upset by the disturbance booed the protester and demanded that he “shut up and get out.” Video from the scene shows a man fighting with the protester and putting the latter in a headlock before security escorted the protester out of the venue. The crowd chanted “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” as the protester left.
During the ordeal, Seinfeld sarcastically commented from on stage, “This is fun. I like this. I think your message is really resonating with the crowd. People seem to be on your side.”
“I like it when the Jew-haters spice up the show,” he also joked, which elicited applause from the audience.
Roughly eight demonstrators disturbed Seinfeld’s show throughout the night before they were all escorted out by security, according to TMZ. Eyewitnesses told the news outlet that Seinfeld told his audience not to boo the protester because he had the right to protest.
The show’s producer, SevenVenues, said in a statement it is “deeply disappointed” in the group of protesters that interrupted Seinfeld’s performance.
“SevenVenues stands by its policy to remove hecklers and those who disrupt a performance, and will continue to protect the freedom of its patrons to enjoy an artist of their choosing without disruption,” it added.
During Seinfeld’s commencement speech at Duke University earlier this month, where he accepted his honorary degree, anti-Israel protesters staged a walk-out shortly after he was introduced on stage.
The post ‘Jew-Haters Spice Up the Show’: Jerry Seinfeld Responds After Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt His Stand-Up Show first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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