Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest filmmaker and Oscar-winner Jonathan Glazer is still earning pushback on his anti-Israel acceptance speech and now, even his film’s own executive producer is blasting him for attacking Israel during his comments on stage.
Danny Cohen, executive producer of Glazer‘s Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest, said he was disappointed with Glazer’s Oscar’s comments and insisted that he “fundamentally disagrees” with Glazer’s anti-Israel position.
During Sunday’s Oscars show, Glazer insisted that supporters of Israel are “refuting their Jewishness” and accused Israel of killing “innocent” Gazans in an “occupation.”
Cohen, the executive producer on Glazer’s Oscar-winning film, is speaking out against Glazer’s comment, noting in an interview on the Unholy podcast that Glazer’s comments “upset a lot of people.”
“A lot of people feel upset and angry about it. And I understand that anger frankly,” Cohen said, according to Deadline.
“A lot of people in the Jewish community who contacted me felt it was a remarkable and very important film. And tells the story of the Holocaust and forms an important piece of Holocaust education,” Cohen said. “And I think they’ve been upset by the sense they feel that has been mixed up with what’s going on now. Whether that was Jonathan’s intention or not.”
“I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this,” Cohen exclaimed. “The war and the continuation of the war is the responsibility of Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization, which continues to hold and abuse the hostages, which doesn’t use its tunnels to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza but uses it to hide themselves and allow Palestinians to die. I think the war is tragic and awful, and the loss of civilian life is awful, but I blame Hamas for that.”
Cohen added that Glazer did not tell him what he intended to say during his speech, but noted that Glazer and producer James Wilson collaborated on writing it ahead of time.
The film executive also said that it was a shame that the speech has become a “huge distraction” that has overshadowed an “extraordinary triumph of filmmaking.”
Glazer has been widely criticized for the Oscar’s segment. The Israeli government, for instance, called Glazer’s words “despicable,” and said they are “deeply shocked” by his speech.
And the The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation blasted Glazer’s speech for causing “anguish” in survivors of the outrage committed by the Nazis in World War Two.
“I watched in anguish Sunday night when I heard you use the platform of the Oscars ceremony to equate Hamas’s maniacal brutality against innocent Israelis with Israel’s difficult but necessary self-defense in the face of Hamas’s ongoing barbarity,” Holocaust survivor David Schaecter said on the group’s website.
“Your comments were factually inaccurate and morally indefensible,” Schaecter said, adding, “You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel.”
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