‘Free Palestine,’ Jewish actor Hannah Einbinder says in Emmys speech as Hollywood debates growing Israeli film industry boycott

JTA -Hannah Einbinder made her ardent pro-Palestinian views known on one of the entertainment industry’s biggest stages when she won an Emmy award for best supporting actress in a comedy on Sunday, 14 September.

“Go Birds, f— ICE and free Palestine,” the Jewish comedian and actress, wearing a red Artists4Ceasefire pin, said to cheers during her acceptance speech for her role in the HBO show Hacks.

The pointed political commentary, mixed in with a cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles, came as Hollywood continued to wrestle with a growing petition to boycott Israeli film institutions amid its ongoing war in Gaza. Einbinder, a vocal pro-Palestinian advocate, was an early signatory to the petition circulated by Film Workers for Palestine, and one of the most prominent Jewish names on a list of entertainment industry personnel that now numbers more than 4 000.

That list includes several top-draw talent and filmmakers, including Emma Stone; Adam McKay; Ava DuVernay; Ayo Edebiri; Ilana Glazer; Abbi Jacobson; and Yorgos Lanthimos. More notable Jewish names have joined the list since its release, including actor Andrew Garfield, whose father is Jewish; musician Mica Levi, who scored the Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest; and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the screenwriter of acclaimed Jewish-themed films Ida and Disobedience.

Two days prior to the Emmys, Paramount, on whose network CBS aired the telecast, became the first major American studio to oppose the boycott publicly.

“We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality doesn’t promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace,” the company said. “The global entertainment industry should be encouraging artists to tell their stories and share their ideas with audiences throughout the world. We need more engagement and communication, not less.”

Both Paramount’s former chairperson, Shari Redstone, and David Ellison, its new owner following a high-profile merger, are Jewish and avid supporters of Israel. Ellison is rumoured to be planning to install a pro-Israel media executive, The Free Press editor Bari Weiss, into a leadership role at CBS News. The studio is also reportedly preparing a bid to acquire rival studio Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns HBO.

One of the boycott’s biggest supporters, actor Javier Bardem, responded to Paramount’s objections on the Emmys red carpet on Sunday.

“I want to clarify something based on Paramount’s letter,” Bardem, wearing a keffiyeh, told Variety. “Film Workers for Palestine do not target any individuals based on identity. The targets are those film companies and institutions that are complicit and are white-washing or justifying the genocide and its apartheid regime. We do stand with those who are helping and being supportive of the oppressed people.

“I cannot work with someone that justifies or supports the genocide,” Bardem said. “It’s as simple as that.” He wasn’t the only red-carpet personality to sport pro-Palestinian garb: a non-Jewish Hacks castmate of Einbinder, Megan Stalter, wore a sign reading “Ceasefire!” on her handbag as she walked the red carpet.

Einbinder herself elaborated on her acceptance speech in interviews after her win. “It’s my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel, because our religion and our culture is such an important and long standing institution that is really separate to this sort of ethno-nationalist state,” she said backstage, pointing out that she had “friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors”. She, too, insisted that the boycott wasn’t intended to target individuals.

In its own statement, Film Workers for Palestine also accused Paramount of “intentionally misrepresenting” the boycott. Like Bardem, the group said the boycott didn’t apply to Israeli individuals, only to institutions. Israeli entertainment-group leaders have disputed this claim, responding that all Israeli creatives work with the targeted institutions, and would be harmed by a boycott.

Other Jewish winners at the Emmys on Sunday included Seth Rogen, whose Apple TV+ sitcom The Studio took home several comedy awards, and the HBO documentary Pee-Wee as Himself, a posthumous portrait of Jewish actor Paul Reubens.