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Susan Sarandon Discusses Hollywood Fallout for Making Anti-Jewish Comments at Pro-Palestinian Rally
Actress Susan Sarandon. Photo: John Nacion/startraksphoto.com via Cover Media/Reuters Connect
Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon opened up in a recent interview about how her career was affected by offensive comments about Jews that she made at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City last year.
At a demonstration in November 2023 protesting the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the “Thelma & Louise” star, 78, accused Israel of war crimes and compared Hamas’s deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 of that year to the hardships Palestinians are facing in Hamas-controlled Gaza. She also said, “There are a lot of people that are afraid, that are afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”
Sarandon apologized shortly afterward for her comments about Jews but did not mention her remarks about Israel. The “Dead Man Walking” star said her phrasing was “a terrible mistake” and that she intended to talk about the uptick in antisemitic attacks. She admitted she was wrong to imply that “until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution when the opposite is true.”
Because of her remarks at the pro-Palestinian rally, Sarandon was dropped as a client by United Talent Agency and lost a potential collaboration with an indie film production company.
“I was dropped by my agency, my projects were pulled,” Sarandon told the British newspaper The Times on Sunday, referencing the fallout. “I’ve been used as an example of what not to do if you want to continue to work.” When asked by the publication if she thinks she will get offered any more big budget movies in the future, she replied, “I don’t know,” before adding that she thinks not “anything in Hollywood.”
Also in November 2023, another actress, Melissa Barrera, was fired from the cast of “Scream 7” for sharing posts on social media that accused Israel of genocide. Around the same time, an agent at Creative Artists Agency came under fire for similar posts on social media.
“There are so many people out of work right now [since] November of last year … who have lost their jobs as custodians, as writers, as painters, as people working in the cafeteria, substitute teachers who have been fired because they tweeted something, or liked a tweet, or asked for a ceasefire,” Sarandon told The Times.
The actress is starring in low-budget movie about bowling called “The Gutter.” Describing her character, Sarandon said, “She’s a narcissist and a racist in that kind of unconscious way, and obviously a horrible mother. All of those things are so much fun to play.”
Despite the fallout from her remarks last year, Sarandon has continued to speak out against the Israel-Hamas war at rallies on Capitol Hill and at Columbia University. In April of this year, she joined anti-Israel protesters at Columbia as they chanted “Columbia, you will see! Palestine will be free!”
The post Susan Sarandon Discusses Hollywood Fallout for Making Anti-Jewish Comments at Pro-Palestinian Rally first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
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