Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Portman Getting It From Both Sides for Israel Snub
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 7 years ago on
April 25, 2018

Share

Natalie Portman may be one of the few people who can bring Jews of disparate opinions to agree on something: Her recent absence from an Israeli award ceremony was wrong.

The Hollywood actress recently rejected attending a Genesis Prize ceremony in Israel.

“I chose not to attend because I did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu, who was to be giving a speech at the ceremony,” she wrote on her Instagram account. “But the mistreatment of those suffering from today’s atrocities is simply not in line with my Jewish values.”

Portman reiterated that her snub did not mean she was endorsing a boycott movement against Israel that many consider anti-Semitic.

Her actions have received criticism from all fronts.

Noted anti-Zionist and author Robert A.H. Cohen took Portman to task on the website Patheos.

“You need to understand that Zionism has, and remains, both a project of Jewish liberation and a project of Jewish colonisation and Jewish apartheid. Our liberation was going to mean another people’s enslavement. Which is why Liberalism and Zionism turn out to be such awkward partners with off spring that look nothing like the Jewish values you say matter to you,” he wrote.

Even Zionists are mad at Portman.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called Portman’s snub anti-Semitic.

“Natalie Portman has played into the hands of the worst of our haters and of the worst of the anti-Semites in the Middle East,” Steinitz is quoted as saying during an interview on the topic.

Forward.com reported:

“Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. Boycotting Israel has elements of anti-Semitism,” Steinitz asserted, adding that Portman would not have boycotted China or India. Boycotting the ceremony because of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s participation practically constitutes a boycott of Israel, Steinitz asserted.

 

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Water Managers Scramble to Fend Off Pumping Sanctions

DON'T MISS

Immigrant Parents Weigh the Risk of Sending Children to School After Trump Policy Change

DON'T MISS

Fire Risk, Strong Winds Continue in Southern California With Potential Rain on the Horizon

DON'T MISS

Danish Politician Tells Trump to ‘F— Off’ Regarding Greenland

DON'T MISS

LA Fires Add Tricky New Wrinkle to Trump-Newsom Feud

DON'T MISS

Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen Lead the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Award Nominations

DON'T MISS

Pentagon to Send up to 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border

DON'T MISS

Border Security Is Popular – but That May Be the Limit of US Immigration Consensus: Poll

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Freezes Many Health Agency Reports and Posts

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Shuts Down White House Spanish-Language Page and Social Media

UP NEXT

Immigrant Parents Weigh the Risk of Sending Children to School After Trump Policy Change

UP NEXT

Fire Risk, Strong Winds Continue in Southern California With Potential Rain on the Horizon

UP NEXT

Danish Politician Tells Trump to ‘F— Off’ Regarding Greenland

UP NEXT

LA Fires Add Tricky New Wrinkle to Trump-Newsom Feud

UP NEXT

Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen Lead the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Award Nominations

UP NEXT

Pentagon to Send up to 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border

UP NEXT

Border Security Is Popular – but That May Be the Limit of US Immigration Consensus: Poll

UP NEXT

Trump Administration Freezes Many Health Agency Reports and Posts

UP NEXT

Trump Administration Shuts Down White House Spanish-Language Page and Social Media

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Nicholas Ryan Hernandez

Danish Politician Tells Trump to ‘F— Off’ Regarding Greenland

42 minutes ago

LA Fires Add Tricky New Wrinkle to Trump-Newsom Feud

50 minutes ago

Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen Lead the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Award Nominations

57 minutes ago

Pentagon to Send up to 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border

2 hours ago

Border Security Is Popular – but That May Be the Limit of US Immigration Consensus: Poll

2 hours ago

Trump Administration Freezes Many Health Agency Reports and Posts

2 hours ago

Trump Administration Shuts Down White House Spanish-Language Page and Social Media

2 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Nicholas Ryan Hernandez

2 hours ago

Trump Administration Cancels Travel for Refugees Already Cleared to Resettle in the US

2 hours ago

Trump Orders Putting ‘People Over Fish.’ Will He Succeed?

2 hours ago

Tulare County Water Managers Scramble to Fend Off Pumping Sanctions

Groundwater managers and others in southern Tulare County are scrambling to comply with state mandates to try and hold off pumping sanctions...

4 minutes ago

4 minutes ago

Tulare County Water Managers Scramble to Fend Off Pumping Sanctions

A student arrives for school Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
25 minutes ago

Immigrant Parents Weigh the Risk of Sending Children to School After Trump Policy Change

A firefighter battles the Lilac Fire near the Bonsall community of San Diego County, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
31 minutes ago

Fire Risk, Strong Winds Continue in Southern California With Potential Rain on the Horizon

Danish politician, Anders Vistisen, tells President Donald Trump to 'f--- off' when responding to Trump's desire to purchase Greenland from Denmark. (GV Wire Composite/Anthony W. Haddad)
42 minutes ago

Danish Politician Tells Trump to ‘F— Off’ Regarding Greenland

Newsom Trump Survey Paradise Fire Aftermath
51 minutes ago

LA Fires Add Tricky New Wrinkle to Trump-Newsom Feud

Taylor Swift appears at the MTV Video Music Awards in Elmont, N.Y., on Sept. 11, 2024, left, and Morgan Wallen appears at the 57th Annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 8, 2023. (Photos by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
57 minutes ago

Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen Lead the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Award Nominations

Dogs are near a border wall separating Mexico from the United States Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, in San Diego. (AP/Gregory Bull)
2 hours ago

Pentagon to Send up to 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border

A national guardsman patrols along a stretch of boarder wall, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP/Eric Gay)
2 hours ago

Border Security Is Popular – but That May Be the Limit of US Immigration Consensus: Poll

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend