At the 96th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, English director and screenwriter Jonathan Glazer received the honor for “Best International Feature Film” for The Zone of Interest, a historical drama set during the Holocaust.
In his acceptance speech, Glazer, who is Jewish, said, “All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. 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 October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?”
Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech for Best International Film for ‘THE ZONE OF INTEREST’ at the #Oscars pic.twitter.com/XNsMv0HDib
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) March 11, 2024
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) CEO Sacha Roytman condemned Glazer’s remarks, stating:
“Unfortunately, Jonathan Glazer turned a magnificent achievement into another ‘As a Jew’ moment, where he appropriated his religious and ethnic identity to attack the national homeland of the Jewish people which is fighting a war on seven fronts against those who openly call for the genocide of Jews. While not comparing the two, Jews are once again being dehumanized for mass destruction, much as they were in the Holocaust. Rather than hijacking the Holocaust, the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people have learned that when someone says that they come to destroy us, we should not doubt their intent. In fact, it is Glazer himself who has hijacked his important portrayal of the Holocaust to assist in the dehumanization of the fight for Jewish survival, while not saying a word about the tsunami of antisemitism facing Jews globally.”
“The Combat Antisemitism Movement invites Jonathan Glazer and his team to meet and discuss how and why it is so important to combat and defeat the oldest and most malignant hatred in our societies, and why Jews around the world are extremely fearful to display any outward signs of their identity.”
Jonathan Glazer would do well to recall that October 7th was the worst loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
Hamas put themselves firmly in the league of history’s most infamous genocidists all by themselves.
Suggesting anything else is an intolerable distortion of history.
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) March 11, 2024
