Oscar winning actress Susan Sarandon has gone to DefCon 5. She’s in a spin control crisis management frenzy after making pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel comments that sounded awfully antisemitic.
At a rally in New York, Sarandon said American Jews would now feel what American Muslims had experienced — i.e. hate. She was immediately dropped by United Talent Agency. Her career may have imploded.
Now she’s posted an apologia to Instagram. It’s clearly composed by a crisis counselor. Will this be enough to save her? Sarandon has always been outspoken, no matter how misguided. She’s passionately ignorant of the consequences. But is this a walk back? Or a plea for a rope to get her out of this quicksand?
“Recently, I attended a rally alongside a diverse group of activists seeking to highlight the urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza and call for a ceasefire. I had not planned to speak but was invited to take the stage and say a few words.
Intending to communicate my concern for an increase in hate crimes, I said that Jewish Americans, as the targets of rising antisemitic hate, ‘are getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence’. This phrasing was a terrible mistake, as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true. As we all know, from centuries of oppression and genocide in Europe to the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, Jews have long been familiar with discrimination and religious violence which continues to this day.
I deeply regret diminishing this reality and hurting people with this comment. It was my intent to show solidarity to the struggle against bigotry of all kinds, and I am sorry I failed to do so.”
