Category: FOREIGN

More than 150 Jewish creatives have signed an open letter supporting Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer’s pro-Palestine Oscars speech.

The British filmmaker, Jonathan Glazer, who won the Best International Feature Oscar for his film ‘The Zone of Interest’, has been at the centre of an ongoing debate in Hollywood. He was under fire for his pro-Palestine speech at the Oscars. Glazer, who is Jewish himself, has now received support from heavyweight names.

Jonathan Glazer’s speech is continuing to become one of the Oscars’ most debated and polarizing moments after many media outlets called it “anti-semitic”
While accepting Best International Feature for his Holocaust film The Zone of Interest, Glazer drew a parallel between his film and the current conflict in Gaza: “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people – whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza – all the victims of this dehumanisation…”

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Now, the director has received fresh and welcome support through a new letter, whose signatories include major Jewish creatives like Nan Goldin, Joaquin Phoenix, Tom Stoppard, Elliott Gould, Debra Winger, Joel Coen, Emma Seligman, Nicole Holofcener, and Boots Riley.

They are among more than 150 Jewish creatives who have signed the open letter supporting Glazer’s Oscars speech, writing that they were “alarmed to see some of our colleagues in the industry mischaracterize and denounce his remarks”.

“In his speech, Glazer asked how we can resist the dehumanization that has led to mass atrocities throughout history,” read the letter. “For such a statement to be taken as an affront only underscores its urgency.”

The letter also criticized the earlier condemnations of Glazer, saying they “have a silencing effect on our industry, contributing to a broader climate of suppression of free speech and dissent, the very qualities our field should cherish.”

“We should be able to name Israel’s apartheid and occupation – both recognized by leading human rights organizations as such – without being accused of rewriting history.”

The letter concluded: “We stand with all those calling for a permanent cease-fire, including the safe return of all hostages and the immediate delivery of aid into Gaza, and an end to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of and siege on Gaza.”

Swiss sheep farmers on Saturday dumped the bodies of animals killed by wolves in front of a regional government building, demanding more action against the predators, Swiss media reported.

Around a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthelemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay out the carcasses of 12 sheep in front of the regional government headquarters in Lausanne, the Chateau Saint-Maire.

“These sheep were killed last night,” Eric Herb, a member of a Swiss association demanding the regulation of big predators, was quoted as saying by the Keystone-ATS news agency.

“It is really time to act.”

“We are sick of this. We want the wolf killed,” agreed Patrick Perroud, a farmer and butcher from the nearby municipality of Oulens.

“Cohabitation is not possible. Our territory is too small,” he told Keystone-ATS.

The protesters told the news agency that wolves had killed 17 sheep in the same area late last month, two earlier this week and 13 overnight to Saturday.

“The breeders have played nice until now, but this time it was too much,” Herb said.

The protesters were planning to increase the pressure on the Vaud government environment minister, Vassilis Venizelos of the Green Party, he said.

One of the protesters’ banners read: “Vassilis step down”, Keystone-ATS reported.

The breeders had briefly negotiated with regional police before being allowed to lay down the animal carcasses on tarpaulin in front of the Chateau.

Participants in the protest, which was supported by the regional chapter of the far-right Swiss People’s Party — Switzerland’s largest party — lamented that they were losing sleep.

“We have to check on our animals every night,” one was quoted as saying.

After being wiped out more than a century ago, wolves have in recent decades begun returning to Switzerland and to several other European countries.

Since the first pack was spotted in the wealthy Alpine nation in 2012, the number of packs swelled to 32 last year, with around 300 individual wolves counted.

Nature conservation groups have hailed the return as a sign of a healthier and more diverse ecosystem.

But breeders and herders complain of attacks on livestock and have been ramping up demands to cull more wolves.

Swiss authorities last year relaxed the rules for hunting the protected species, and decided to allow large preventative culls in the most affected cantons but swift legal actions put those plans partially on ice.

The debate in several parts of Europe about wolves rose up the political agenda in September.

In an open letter to the European Commission, eight leading conservation groups said there were ways to make coexistence easier between humans and large wild animals like wolves.

“Damage to livestock is often linked to the lack of adequate supervision and/or physical protection,” they said. They pointed to strategies such as “the training of dogs to protect herds, education of herders, tools and technical solutions to deter wolves”.