The Holocaust Survivors Foundation (USA) used Sunday’s Oscar acceptance speech to accuse filmmaker Jonathan Glaser of attacking Israel for using the Holocaust to justify its war with Hamas in Gaza.
As Breitbart News reported:
The experimental Holocaust drama “Zone of Interest” won the Oscar for best international feature, and its director Jonathan Glazer used the moment to condemn Israel’s attack on Gaza.
…
Glaser said he and his fellow filmmakers “stand here as deniers of our Jewishness and the holocaust that was hijacked by the occupation, which led to conflict for so many innocent people.” “I’m working on it,” he said.
Glazer’s comments drew worldwide condemnation.
The Holocaust Survivors Foundation – USA responded with an open letter from Holocaust Survivors President David Schechter, signed by the organization’s Board of Directors and posted on the organization’s homepage. Website:
I am 94 years old and the only member of my family of 105 to survive the Holocaust.Miraculously, I survived for almost 3 years. [in] One year in the hell of Auschwitz and then the hell of Buchenwald.
I hope you will use the Oscars podium on Sunday night to highlight Hamas’s fanatical brutality against innocent Israelis, Israel’s difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of Hamas’ continued barbarism. I watched in pain as I heard people identifying themselves with this.
Your comment is factually inaccurate and morally indefensible.
The “profession” you speak of has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The Jewish presence and right to live in the Land of Israel existed hundreds of years before the Holocaust. Today’s political and geographical situation is a direct result of the wars started by past Arab leaders who refused to accept Jews as neighbors in their historic homeland. At a time when several Arab countries have made peace with Israel, because security and prosperity are better for their people, Iran and its terrorist proxies are too many people who innocently or maliciously blame the “occupation.” Instigated by others, they started a new war.
Even worse, you have chosen to use the Holocaust to justify your personal opinions. You made a Holocaust movie and won an Oscar. And you are Jewish. Good for you. But it would be a shame for you to speak for the 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, who were murdered solely for their Jewish identity.
And it’s a shame for you to speak for those of us who have personally seen our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins murdered and the world silenced. It’s the right thing to do. In fact, we had nowhere to go. There was no place to take shelter. Even though world leaders were well aware that thousands of Jews were being murdered every day, no country would accept us. There was no Jewish state from which we could escape.
You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel.
If the creation, existence, and survival of the state of Israel as a Jewish state equates to “occupation” in your mind, then you clearly learned nothing from your film.
The Israeli government criticized Glazer’s comments, calling them “despicable.”
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of the recent book, The Zionist Conspiracy (And How to Participate in It), now available on Audible. He is also the author of an e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
