We Stand Here As Men Who Refute Their Jewishness and Holocaust, Hijacked By an Occupation: Was Jonathan Glazer Right In Making Those Comments?

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The Oscars was meant to be about the celebration of the film industry and its outstanding performers in the last year.

And yet, the main talking point on people’s lips was the speech which was given by the director of the critically acclaimed film, Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer.

The British auteur, used his platform to denounce the Israeli government, for its actions in Gaza, uttering the words, which has been quoted a billion times over on social media and everywhere else:

Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst … 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.”

But was he right to say those words, regardless of his background?

The genocide in Gaza has split people across every line imaginable: race, gender, religion, creed etc.

Here in the United Kingdom, we have the unique situation in which mainstream politicians are frightened out of their wits to call for ceasefire for fear of being labelled anti-Semitic.

And those who have been out protesting the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza have been labelled extremists by the government of the day, conveniently forgetting that those marching for peace are people of various backgrounds, of which Jewish people are a part.

And I don’t think we fully appreciate how complex and fraught a subject this is for British and American Jews.

I state this because British Jews are split on this subject, with the likes of Miriam Margoyle, Julia Hobsbawm and Michael Rosen on one side and the likes of David Baddiel, Maureen Lipman, Vanessa Feltz, Stephen Fry and Sacha Baron Cohen on the other side.

And we all know where Jonathan Glazer stands on this matter.

Already, there’s been vast numbers of Zionists, who have come out to denounce Jonathan Glazer as anti-Semitic, for daring to say what some might describe as unsayable.

If the man had an active social media account prior to his Oscar win, you can be rest assured that it would have been deleted, given the tsunami of abuse which he has received from Zionists, far right activists and everyone else in between.

No other topic dominated X as much, yesterday.

And it is also worth pointing out that there’s been numbers of people who have spoken out in support of Oscar winning director.

But to answer the question posed earlier, the answer is a resounding yes.

Yes, because we cannot divert our eyes from the suffering of our fellow humans; we cannot pretend that thousands of women and children haven’t been targeted by the genocidal Israeli government.

Yes, because our humanity demands that we stand up for what’s right.

Our governments may be morally bankrupt and utterly lacking in moral sense, but we have a duty to speak up powerfully and ensure that we set the standards for future generations.

Jonathan Glazer represents the very best of humanity.

This is my two cents, what’s yours?