An organization of Jews in Hollywood condemned efforts by a pro-Palestinian group of artists to wear pins supporting Gaza at the upcoming Academy Awards, calling the buttons an “emblem of Jewish bloodshed.”
Artists4Ceasefire, a collective of well-known people in the entertainment industry, sent letters to attendees of the annual award show, requesting that they wear a pin calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, though a ceasefire has in fact been in effect for more than a month.
The pins depict an orange hand holding a heart in front of a red background. Artists4Ceasefire said in its letters that the pin “symbolizes support for universal human rights and lasting peace.”
Brigade — an organization of Jewish Hollywood personalities founded in the wake of the October 7 massacre to advocate for Jews and Israel — decried that the letters were sent out on February 20, the same day that the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, two young redheaded hostages murdered in Hamas captivity, were released from Gaza.
“On the very day it was discovered that the Bibas babies — innocent Jewish children — were strangled to death by the terrorist’s bare hands, you asked Hollywood to wear [the pin] with pride,” said a letter sent from Brigade to Artists4Ceasefire.
The Brigade letter also noted that red hands are a symbol of the lynching of two Israel Defense Forces reservists who accidentally entered the Palestinian city of Ramallah in 2000 during the Second Intifada. During that event, one of the lynchers, Aziz Salha, stood at the window of the police station in which the two Israelis were killed and held his blood-stained hands out to a cheering crowd. Salha was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in October.
“That infamous image is now your ‘ceasefire’ badge,” the letter said.
“You claim to see humanity on both sides. Yet you ignore the facts surrounding the historic barbaric October 7 terror attack on Israel; push your anti-Israel narrative even after Israel agreed to ceasefires with Hamas AND Hezbollah; [and] refuse to condemn Hamas’s grotesque, sadistic ceasefire tactics.”
The letter also slammed Artists4Ceasefire for not condemning the dire condition of some of the hostages upon their release or the grotesque ceremonies held during the handover of hostages’ remains.
“Would you parade the symbol of people who strangled babies with their bare hands? Because that is what the red hand represents,” the letter continued.
“That pin is no symbol of peace. It is the emblem of Jewish bloodshed.”
Some Oscar nominees wore the red pins at last year’s award ceremony as well.
The Artists4Ceasefire initiative began with an open letter to then-US president Joe Biden calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and the delivery of aid to civilians in Gaza.
Signatories to the letter included Ben Affleck, Ariana Grande, Bradley Cooper, Drake, Jon Stewart and Mark Ruffalo.
In September, Artists4Ceasefire called for a weapons embargo against Israel.
The war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF. Released hostages have said they were abused by their captors.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.