‘Looking away was never a choice for me’: How Hollywood’s love affair with Israel turned sour

Once Israel could rely on Hollywood to have its reputation laundered, performing the role of a benign ally which shared the values and interests of the West. However, a growing number of actors and prominent figures in film and TV are confronting the industry’s ongoing complicity with Israel's occupation and its actions in Gaza, which a consensus of experts and human rights groups have called a genocide. More and more artists are using their platforms to speak about the plight of the Palestinians and have contributed to Israel’s cratering approval among western audiences. In 2025, US-based organisation Film Workers for Palestine (FWP), established by a group of filmmakers the previous year, released a pledge to end complicity with the genocide in Gaza. It garnered the signatures of more than 5,500 people in the industry, including A-list actors like Josh O’Connor, Olivia Colman, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and many more. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid, a group of artists who refused to screen their work in apartheid South Africa, signatories pledged not to screen films, appear at or work alongside Israeli film institutions implicated in genocide and apartheid. “People were ready to publicly put their name to a commitment of refusal... to not be complicit in Israel’s genocide,” an FWP spokesperson told Middle East Eye, adding that there is “power in numbers”. Looking for Gaza in California: How Palestine took over family, Hollywood and campuses Read More » A major element of Israel’s “normalisation” is through allowing western films to be shown in Israeli cinemas and festivals, they added, but filmmakers can challenge this by specifying consultation requirements for particular territories in their contracts. “I do think there is a sea-change happening,” the spokesperson told MEE, where “people are thinking about their labour and how it is related, how their art is being used". Many actors wore ceasefire and Palestine pins on the red carpet, using award ceremony speeches and publicity to draw attention to the conflict. One of the pledge’s signatories, British actor and prominent human rights activist Juliet Stevenson, told MEE that “it was a no-brainer for me to speak up”. The actor, who is an Amnesty Ambassador, has supported refugee rights throughout her career and last year spoke out in favour of proscribed organisation Palestine Action. She explained: “I felt I had no option really, looking away was never a choice for me. I don’t know who I would’ve been if I had looked away.” She added that the potential impact on her career “did not cross my mind”. Regarding why more artists and institutions had not spoken out, she said it was “hard to find an answer that isn’t connected to fear, or not wanting to rock the boat”, but as consciousness shifts, more people are emboldened to take a stance, she said. The recent success of NAZA, an Israeli film featuring soldiers' testimonies of their crimes in Gaza, which received a 25-minute standing ovation at Venice Film Festival, demonstrated for Stevenson that “people in Hollywood who can't seem to operate alone, can seem to stand up with others”. Corporate consolidation US film and distribution company Paramount, which was recently acquired by pro-Israel billionaire Larry Ellison, criticised FWP’s pledge as “an effort to boycott Israeli film-makers”. Since the Ellison family took over the studio, there were reports of Paramount blacklisting talent because of their stance on Palestine, however the company denies this. Other sources clarified that, while no itemised list exists, senior management “shares a set of values” and will not work with anyone expressing “hate”. Paramount under fire for meddling in Gaza coverage after '60 Minutes' producer resigns Read More » Mark Ruffalo, star of Marvel’s The Hulk and a vocal pro-Palestine supporter, faced accusations of antisemitism from Ellison after criticising Paramount Skydance's controversial $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery. In a social media post, Ruffalo highlighted links between Paramount, run by CEO David Ellison, and Oracle, the firm owned by his father Larry, whose surveillance technology maintains Israeli apartheid and occupation. Ruffalo shared a video of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz stating that “we have some really profoundly scary technology at Oracle, and we wanted to make sure it was available for the effort”, referring to the Israeli military’s response to the 7 October 2023 attacks. “Look how [Catz] revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” he commented. “These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day be used on you,” Ruffalo warned, urging opposition to the merger, which he said would be “catastrophic” for the entertainment industry. The media giant accused Ruffalo of using “antisemitic tropes” in criticising a deal which would put one family in control of much of American media, including news channels CNN and CBS, and streaming platform HBO. In response, over 180 prominent Jewish figures signed a letter defending Ruffalo against the “false and dangerous weaponisation of charges of antisemitism”. Union failures Ruffalo is not the only actor to face institutional backlash for supporting Palestine. In November 2023, Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency after speaking at a pro-Palestine rally, while Melissa Barrera was fired from the Scream franchise for resharing a post accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing”. While the US actors’ union SAG-AFTRA rallied against talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel's suspension by ABC for criticising US President Donald Trump, it remained silent on the repression of actors opposing Israel. , “The tide has changed,” Amin El Gamal, chair of SAG-AFTRA’s National Middle Eastern and North African Committee, told MEE, referring to the climate ater 2023. But Hollywood’s “gatekeepers have largely not caught up to public opinion”, remaining unresponsive to union members’ demands to end their “deep complicity” in Israel’s crimes. He cited the union’s pro-Israel statement issued six days after 7 October, when the death toll in Gaza had already surpassed the number killed in the Hamas-led attack, describing it as “helping justify ongoing genocide”. "Go birds, fuck ICE and free Palestine." Hannah Einbinder turned her Emmy win for best supporting actress in a comedy into a platform for activism, wearing a red Artists4Ceasefire pin and joining fellow actors on the red carpet calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In a follow-up interview, Einbinder said the cause was deeply personal, citing friends working as doctors and teachers in Gaza. She added that as a Jewish person she feels a responsibility to distinguish Judaism from the state of Israel, and voiced support for the Film Workers for Palestine boycott, saying it “does not boycott individuals, it only boycotts institutions that are directly complicit in the genocide.” — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 15, 2025 Gamal said he repeatedly reached out to the union asking to discuss the statement, but was ignored. It took almost a year for senior staff to agree to a meeting after an open letter was published in The Hollywood Reporter, only to reject his committee’s proposal for a ceasefire statement. Although SAG-AFTRA, which also represents broadcasters, condemned Trump and Russia for targeting journalists, it failed to comment on Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists. On the Warner Bros merger, the union released a weak statement, calling for “enforceable safeguards” before the deal proceeds, despite its implications for the labour interests that it is supposed to represent. BDS success Meanwhile, Norway’s actors union, Norsk Skuespillerforbund (NSF), recommended its members refuse to work with complicit Israeli institutions in line with Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) guidelines. It also joined other artists’ unions in an appeal urging Norwegian authorities to review their cooperation with Israel and protect Palestinian culture from erasure. The Netherlands’ International Documentary Film Festival, the world’s largest documentary film festival, also recently signed the Dutch and Belgian cultural boycott against Israel. Why Britain's liberal Zionists must watch NAZA Read More » Ireland’s Cork Film Festival updated its policy to reject funding from governments “found by the International Court of Justice to violate international humanitarian law” or involved in measures “relating to genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity”. FWP launched a campaign targeting Germany’s Berlinale film festival over its crackdown on filmmakers and workers using their platforms to draw attention to Palestine. Often these institutions claim to be apolitical, yet after Russia’s invasion, Berlinale made Ukrainian flag pins, and funded a group of Ukrainian film-makers: a blatant double standard. Berlinale receives government funding and is broadcast across Germany, where obsessive crackdowns on pro-Palestinian expression have led to artists being cancelled and deplatformed. When Israeli-Palestinian film No Other Land won the Documentary Film Award at the Berlinale in February 2024, German politicians accused Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham of antisemitism for criticising his country’s apartheid in his acceptance speech. No Other Land was also awarded last year’s Oscar for best documentary feature, indicating Academy voters were keen to signal a position on the conflict they were otherwise reluctant to express. Yet when the Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal was violently attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank shortly after winning the Oscar, the Academy faced criticism for its lack of response. 'A small number of people have disproportionate amounts of power… and a lot of them are still very aligned with Israel’s interests' - Amin El Gamal, chair of SAG-AFTRA Middle East committee Another FWP campaign targeted Mubi, which accepted $100m in funding from Sequoia Capital, a venture firm deeply invested in Israeli military technology. Although FWP did not call for a boycott, its campaign prompted a drop in Mubi’s subscriber base and staff revolts, leading the arthouse streaming platform to concede to some of the group’s demands, albeit in diluted form. “On the one hand, it’s very hopeful… that we have the hearts of the masses in the US,” El Gamal stated, "but at the same time, increasingly, a small number of people have disproportionate amounts of power… and a lot of them are still very aligned with Israel’s interests.” He explained that celebrities hold “large cultural capital and actual capital” which they can lend to amplifying Palestinian voices and solidifying Israel’s status as a “toxic rogue state”. Israel is “so used to getting their way and evading any kind of accountability, they don’t understand what it means to confront this palpable change of attitude”, resorting to silencing critics and vilifying boycotts, which are non-violent, he continued. But when it comes to “a few billionaires against the masses”, he said, through cultural boycotts and collective action, “people power will always win”.