How Hollywood Went From Loving 'Israel' for 75 Years to Attacking It

Escalating global artists' criticism of the Israeli occupation has raised questions about the extent of the change in the American movie capital, Hollywood, towards Israeli propaganda.

These changes were monitored by newspapers after Hollywood stars issued repeated statements condemning Israeli crimes, such as the attacks on Palestinians, the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and the classification of Palestinian-American human rights organizations as terrorists.

But what is new is the collapse of the wall of fear from the Jewish lobby in Europe and the United States; Westerners and Israelis have observed this phenomenon of the end of love for "Israel" in Hollywood after 75 years of false propaganda.

In a lengthy report on May 28, 2022, Foreign Policy magazine monitored the phenomenon of the disappearance of the dominance of traditional Jewish propaganda in Hollywood and the coup of its stars and films against "Israel," and talked about its crimes.

The magazine pointed to the end of the era of great support enjoyed by the occupation state since its establishment in 1948 by the American film industry through lies and stories of a religious, cultural, and political nature, in return for distorting the image of Arabs and Muslims.

 

Hollywood's Shift

The upheaval in Hollywood and the erosion of the dominance of Jewish propaganda in the film industry since its peak in 1947, was monitored by the book, Hollywood and Israel: A History, issued by Columbia University in March 2022, written by Professor of Contemporary History Tony Shaw (American) and historian Giora Goodman (Israeli).

The book revealed the many ways in which Hollywood moguls, directors, and actors have supported "Israel" for more than seven decades, exposed the complex story of Israel's relationship with American Jews, and showed how the media and the soft power of American cinema contributed to shaping the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Jewish Currents website also monitored in a lengthy report on April 22, 2022, the dominance of this Zionist propaganda on Hollywood cinema, which is represented by the propaganda doctrine of Hasbara and its decline.

Prior to this, Moment magazine dealt with it in the March-April 2018 issue, from a religious angle, on how to write the story of the Holy Land (Jerusalem) for Israelis and Palestinians in Hollywood cinema.

The book, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jewish Invented Hollywood?, published in 1989, also showed how Jewish immigrants took control of its studios and published the most prominent names of the Jews of this empire, such as Harry Cohn, William Fox, Carl Laemmle, Louis B. Mayer, Jack and Harry Warner, and Adolph Zucker, who created their own vision of the American dream while linking the Jews to it.

The focus of what was monitored in all these reports published on Western websites, newspapers, and books revolves around the Jewish propaganda that has been planted and promoted in Hollywood since the intensification of the immigration of European and international Jews to Palestine in 1947, and the declaration of the State of "Israel" in 1948.

A Foreign Policy report showed how, over the past 75 years, the Israelis have played on the so-called Hasbara, a Hebrew word meaning explanation and interpretation.

Hasbara is a propaganda doctrine that refers to the Israeli propaganda carried out abroad, especially through Hollywood cinema, being the most influential, and is based on exporting the idea that "Israel" is a paradise of democracy among the Arabs.

These reports showed how the Zionist propaganda (Hasbara) aimed to show the Israelis on the Hollywood screen “the freedom-loving cousins of America, the architects of a multi-ethnic democracy, the protectors of the Jews of the post-Holocaust world, and the defenders of the West against the hordes of terrorists,” according to the book.

A Foreign Policy report also monitored the influence of this propaganda doctrine, starting with Hollywood stars traveling to support "Israel" in the 1940s, collecting donations for it in the 1960s, and making films that glorified Jews and attacked Arabs; ending with the refusal of the current Hollywood stars to travel to "Israel" because of its crimes in Palestine, and how incidents such as the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and others changed Hollywood’s mood.

On the other hand, the book, Hollywood and Israel: A History, came to also list Hollywood's reluctance to support "Israel," as it has been doing since 1947, and the history of the rise and end of the relationship between the film industry and the Jewish state.

The book reviewed Hollywood's history of supporting the entity since its star Paul Newman appeared on the set of the film Exodus in "Israel" in 1947, and the Star of David chain was hanging on his chest.

The film presents a Zionist proposal for the founding of "Israel" by telling the story of a ship of European Jewish immigrants who were victims of the Holocaust, called the Exodus, which docks in Palestine, and its passengers settle in its cities and countryside instead of its original inhabitants; after the United Nations declared the partition of Palestine, Arab Jews brutally attack them and kill their women and children, according to the film's allegations.

The film showed the Arabs as attackers of the Jews, who would defend themselves and eventually win and establish the State of "Israel."

The book referred to Hollywood stars reviving parties in "Israel" as part of this propaganda, as the American singer and actor Frank Sinatra did in a huge show in front of a large crowd of young people in "Israel" on May 1, 1962; he has worked on a series of films glorifying the Jewish state and espousing stories about the right of Jews to Palestine.

There is also, for example, The Best Years of Our Lives from 1946, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, simply because it dealt with the issue of European Jewish refugees, despite the original story about three soldiers returning from World War II.

 

Signs and Evidence

However, the magic turned on the magician, and Hollywood stars began attacking the crimes of the occupation now and showing his racism through modern films.

Among them is the Oscar-nominated film The Gatekeepers, which in 2012 monitored the story of the repressive Israeli internal security service (Shin Bet) and its crimes, and the film 5 Broken Cameras, released in 2011 with the Arab Spring, which told the story of the Palestinian village of Bil'in's peaceful resistance against the separation wall and Israeli settlements.

American actress Natalie Portman refused an Israeli award of $1 million from the Tel Aviv government in 2018, in protest of its racist behavior, and she also denounced the Jewish National Law in an interview at the end of 2019.

In 2016, 26 of Hollywood's stars declined invitations to visit "Israel" on free and luxury tours, among them: Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Indeed, Hollywood stars who condemned the Israeli occupation's killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh forced the US newspapers to condemn her killing, after some newspapers reported the news in a way that reported that she died and was not killed by the Israeli soldiers' bullets.

A number of Hollywood stars attacked the killing of the journalist Abu Akleh, who also holds American citizenship, by the Israeli occupation soldiers, and criticized the coverage of their country's newspapers, including the New York Times, her killing as normal news.

Immediately after the New York Times published the news of the killing of Abu Akleh, entitled “Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh dies at the age of 51,” Liam Cunningham, star of the series Game of Thrones, attacked the newspaper violently.

Cunningham corrected the headline of the news on his Instagram account, using the edit feature, saying: “She was assassinated by an Israeli sniper while wearing a press vest and reporting on Israeli military violence,” forcing the newspaper to change its headline.

On her part, American actress Susan Sarandon condemned the assassination of the Al-Jazeera correspondent in the occupied territories and criticized her country's policy of silence.

“Shireen Abu Akleh was executed with a bullet to the head by Israeli snipers while she was wearing her helmet and a flak vest with Press written on it,” she tweeted.

“How long will we continue remaining silent while our Israeli allies kill journalists for telling inconvenient truths?” Sarandon asked.

When the occupation soldiers attacked the funeral of Abu Akleh, 126 actors and workers in the Hollywood film industry signed a statement criticizing the occupation police and calling for "Israel" to be held accountable, according to The Hollywood Reporter on May 19, 2022.

Western reports, which were monitored by Al-Estiklal, about the reversal of Hollywood's position on "Israel," indicate that one of the most important stimulators for changing its approach and the view of its stars, Jews and others, towards the Palestinians is the social media platforms.

These platforms have broken the official barriers between facts and the recipient, and have shaken the Israeli narrative prevailing in traditional media as it has shaken the racist narrative towards blacks in the United States, and have forced Hollywood to promote pluralism and avoid stereotypical portrayals of minorities and the vulnerable in its films.

During the 2022 Israeli attacks on the Palestinians, the most recent of which was the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the social media platforms were filled with unprecedented solidarity campaigns by Hollywood stars with the Palestinians, denouncing the Israeli escalation, bombing, and killing, including Mark Ruffalo and Viola Davis, and even the Israeli Natalie Portman.

For the first time, the pro-"Israel" statements by Hollywood stars were absent, with the exception of the tweet of the Israeli Gal Gadot, which was met with sharp criticism, forcing her to delete it later.

This is a big shift; until recently, any pro-Palestinian or anti-"Israel" statement exposed Hollywood stars to a stinging denunciation of their fans and reprimands from film industry officials, sometimes causing career damage.