America’s Hollywood film industry has clamped down on actors and actresses over their pro-Palestine and alleged anti-Semitic views who have opposed Israel’s brutal aggression against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a statement on Tuesday, United Talent Agency (UTA), a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California, said that it had cut ties with Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon as its client after she spoke out at a recent pro-Palestinian rally in New York City.
The six-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee has so far attended several rallies in support of Palestine and drew criticism for saying: “There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.”
“People are questioning, people are standing up, people are educating themselves, people are stepping away from brainwashing that started when they were kids,” Sarandon was also quoted as encouraging others to keep speaking up in support of Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long suppression and devastation against Palestinians.
According to the Gaza-based health ministry, more than 14,000 Palestinians, including at least 5,600 children, have been killed and more than 33,000 others injured in the Israeli strikes.
Tel Aviv has also imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
Sarandon encouraged attendees to “be strong, be patient, be clear and stand with anybody who has the courage to speak out” and thanked “the Jewish community who’s come out to have our backs.”
She also went on to repost a pro-Palestinian message from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Sarandon is not alone in being in hot water over her stance on the ongoing war against Palestinians. Melissa Barrera, a Mexican actress, was also dropped from starring in the seventh installment of Scream franchise over a series of social media posts against Israel’s brutality and in support of Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in one post on Instagram stories. “Cornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity no water … People have learned nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING,”
Spyglass, the production company for Scream 7, said it had “zero tolerance for [anti-Semitism] or the incitement of hate in any form.”
Back in mid-October, it was revealed that American cable channel MSNBC had quietly taken three prominent Muslim journalists “out of the anchor’s chair” over their pro-Palestine stance.
About that time, it was also reported that the BBC had taken six of its reporters off the air as an investigation had been launched into their pro-Palestinian posts on the social media platform X.
