The Gate Is Open, the Dam Is Broken
Javier and Hannah’s words moved beyond symbolism of solidarity to a full-throated call for tangible actions against the perpetrator.
Something felt different about Sunday’s Emmy Awards. There was a shift in the air, a sense of … overcoming. But overcoming what, exactly? Everything. A barrier that held some of us from really spouting those words out: genocide, Israel, boycott. Fear of retribution. Loss of jobs, livelihoods. Hateful comments.
As words like overcoming, crossing the bridge, opening the floodgates, breaking the dam circled in my head all day, I noticed others naming the same shift, sharing the same language, as if we’d all felt it at once.
This Substack note from the author Trita Parsi hit the nail on the head. The key barrier in revolutions is the public fearing the dictator. Overcoming that barrier is when the public stops fearing the dictator. Similarly, the fear of retribution by elements supporting Israel’s genocide had been overcome. Do you feel the shift?
Listen to what Javier Bardem said on the Emmys red carpet, when interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter:
“Here I am today, denouncing the genocide in Gaza. I am talking about the IAGS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who study thoroughly genocide and has declared it is a genocide. That’s why we ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade and also sanctions on Israel to stop the genocide. Free Palestine.”
The clip was reposted several times by Variety — no censorship. Variety, a magazine that relentlessly published hit pieces on actresses Rachel Zegler and Melisa Barrera, framing their empathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people as inflammatory political rhetoric that borders on hate speech.
These are the articles they published over the course of last year:
Melissa Barrera Ignites More Controversy With New Social Media Posts, Sparking Heated Debate at WME
To have Variety magazine publish Javier Bardem’s full statement on the Emmys red carpet is nothing short of a miracle, given their track record of culturewashing Israel’s war crimes in Palestine.
Javier was on a mission, using this platform to promote the Film Workers for Palestine — a call endorsed by filmmakers and cinema workers to stand for an end to genocide, and for a free Palestine. They organized a pledge, signed by 3,900 industry names declaring the signees will not work with Israeli institutions and film companies that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” The pledge states that examples of complicity include “whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them.”
He pivoted every single question from himself and his project, to Palestine.
Listen to
Interviewer: First of all, I got to ask you about the Keffiyah?
Javier: “At the end of August, the AGS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars who study thoroughly the word genocide, the concept of genocide, called what is going on in Gaza today a genocide. And that's why we want to ask for a commercial and diplomatic blockade and sanctions on Israel to stop this genocide, free Palestine.”
Interviewer: And you know there's been that was a long time coming. I think there was a lot of debate over many months and people were so reluctant to say it. How frustrating was that for you for them to to wait for them to finally confirm something that a lot of people had already known?
Javier: “Yeah. And also we are getting together, the Film Workers for Palestine. It's a great union, group that is getting more and more people attached. It's also important to clarify, we do not target individuals. What we target are those complicit film companies, and institutions that are involved in whitewashing or justifying the genocide of Israel in Gaza. And it's an apartheid regime. And we stand with those who fight and stand in solidarity with the oppressed.
Interviewer: Yeah. And that was an important distinction.
Javier: “Absolutely. Institutions and companies. And if you want to work on a movie, you have to have a very thorough check out of who's behind it, and to see what is their relationship with the genocide, and then take your decisions. I know my decision. I will never work with some company now that are not are not condemning the genocide in Israel in in Gaza.”
Interviewer: Are you having conversations with Elise and your reps? Because of course I know…
Javier: I know what I'm doing. I know what I can bring. It's okay. Me not getting jobs is absolutely irrelevant compared to what is going on there. It's it's that easy.
Interviewer: Yeah. I mean, what an amazing statement you're making that a lot of people have been afraid to make.
Javier: Their silence, because they're afraid, is their support to the genocide.
Interviewer: And then let's talk about you and this nomination by the way, which was so deserved.
Javier: “It's so hard to pivot to something from real life. And I thank you very much for your microphone and your time and your attention and your camera to give me the platform to speak about what it matters.”
I'm so happy that uh the Sound of Hadi had sorry made it into the Grand Jury Prize because it's going to bring attention to it, and there's another great Palestinian movie called ‘All That Is Left of You’ that you will hear about in Toronto, and it's a great movie, and it's about time to bring those stories, and to give them screen time for people to understand what we're talking about. This thing didn't start on October 7th. This thing started in 1948.
Interviewer: Wow.
Yes, exactly that. Wow.
Listen to his entire red-carpet interview.
Fuck ICE and Free Palestine? Listen to Hannah Einbinder iconic line while receiving her award.
And also her words in the Emmy Presser, clearly calling out Israel human right’s violations and war crimes.
Mohammed El-Kurd explained the importance of this moment, and why the choice of both Javier and Hannah’s words moved beyond symbolism of solidarity to a full-throated call for tangible actions against the perpetrator, Israel:
“If you felt that the Javier Bardem/Hannah Einbinder’s statements last night were refreshing, and unlike the usual red carpet lip-service, it is because they weren’t vague or preemptively defensive, nor did they reduce the genocide to a faceless “humanitarian crisis.” They denounced the culprit unequivocally and named what justice demanded: sanctions.
I'm rarely impressed with celebrity displays of solidarity, not only due to suspicions of opportunism or whatnot, but mostly because, so often, they're painfully timid and hesitant, defanging their political stances with euphemisms, disclaimers and bothsidesism, or refusing to name the perpetrators—these silly linguistic tricks meant to appease all sides end up rendering well-intentioned gestures hollow and perfunctory. Such reticence does nothing to raise the ceiling and is a complete waste of social capital.
In the case of Bardem and Einbinder, however, it wasn't the keffiyeh or the ceasefire pin that were impressive, it was Bardem's full-throated call for "commercial and diplomatic blockade, and also sanctions on Israel."
It was Einbinder’s saying “Free Palestine” in a room full of powerful Zionists, instead of opting to use the classic (and very feeble) talking point of “women, children, etc.” Meaning, instead of taking the easy route of talking about Gaza as if it's an unfortunate natural disaster, she explicitly adopted the slogan of our movement, a slogan rooted in anti-Zionist, anti-colonial struggle for land and liberation, coupling it with the local struggle against ICE, and later renouncing Israel, not just “Netanyahu’s government,” as an “ethnonationalist state” that must be exiled outside of American mainstream Jewry.
One only gets a few minutes on stage or talking to the press, and they chose to use that time to move beyond the symbolism of the pin and the scarf and into tangible action, however limited it may be: vowing to cut ties with those complicit in genocide and demanding they be sanctioned.”
