Playwright Tony Kushner says Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar speech ‘unimpeachable, irrefutable’ amid backlash

Playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner has spoken out in support of director Jonathan Glazer who is facing backlash over his Oscars acceptance speech.

Kushner, who has won Pulitzer and Tony awards for his play Angels in America, said on the Haaretz Podcast released Wednesday that he identified with Glazer’s speech and described it as “really sort of unimpeachable, irrefutable statement”.

“Of course.  I mean, who doesn’t? What he’s saying is so simple. He’s saying: Jewishness, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering must not be used in a campaign of – as an excuse for a project of dehumanising or slaughtering other people.

“This is a misappropriation of what it means to be a Jew, what the Holocaust meant, and [Glazer] rejects that. Who doesn’t agree with that? What kind of person thinks that what’s going on now in Gaza is acceptable?” he said.

“And if you find yourself saying out loud and in public, ‘Oh it’s fine with me what they’re doing,’ because you feel that it’s the only choice for you, because you’re a Jew, is to defend everything that Israel does, you know, shame on you.”

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Kushner, who is Jewish and a longtime critic of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and treatment of Palestinians, also spoke about accusations that calling for a ceasefire was antisemitism.

“The people that I know who are passionately involved in calls for a ceasefire, these are not people who are antisemites, their interest is not in destroying Israel and certainly their interest is not in pogroms against Jews elsewhere”.

Kushner added that he wanted “Israelis to be able to live in peace and security”, but that the “treatment of the Palestinians, as many Israelis have been saying for decades, the occupation of the West Bank and the imprisonment of people in Gaza, and the checkpoints, and the wall, and all this stuff actually doesn’t make Israel safe”.

Glazer won the best foreign language film Oscar for The Zone of Interest, a German-language film set in the lives of the Höss family, who live comfortably next to Auschwitz during the Holocaust. While accepting his Oscar, Glazer gave the only pointedly political speech that night, relating the events of his film to the war in Gaza.

“Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” said Glazer.

“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 Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanisation – how do we resist?”

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Glazer has faced backlash after his speech was seen by many as refuting his Jewish identity. An open letter denouncing his speech was passed around, with signatures from over a 1,000 people, including Debra Messing, Brett Gelman, Julianna Margulies, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Michael Rapaport.

The letter, described as a “statement from Jewish Hollywood professionals”, said: “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”

However, other people from the industry, including Boots Riley, Zoe Kazan and Asif Kapadia came to Glazer’s defence. Kapadia told Variety, “He stood up and told the truth. This is what true artists do,” and Zoe Kazan posted on X, saying she was shocked that people who had seen Glazer’s film were surprised by his message.

Israel launched its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza and a “total siege” in retaliation against the bloody Hamas militant attack on southern Israel on 7 October. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack, with another 250 taken hostage, including toddlers. Up to 136 of the hostages remain in Gaza, an unknown number are still alive.

Israel’s bombardment has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, the vast majority women and children, according to Palestinian health officials in the Hamas-run strip. At least 60 per cent of Gaza’s homes and buildings have reportedly been destroyed or damaged. More than three-quarters of the strip’s population are displaced.