Hollywood cheers speeches, ignores genocide

When Hannah Einbinder closed her Emmy acceptance speech last week with "Go Birds, f**k ICE, free Palestine," Hollywood gasped, applauded, and congratulated itself for tolerating audacity. But while the industry replayed her words on social media, Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra's home was being raided by Israeli soldiers. 

Just weeks earlier, Awdah al-Hathaleen - an educator and activist who helped film the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land' - was shot dead by an Israeli settler.

Hollywood, which celebrates Palestinian stories when they bring home golden statues, said nothing. Not the Academy, not the studios, not the stars who style themselves as progressive voices. 

This is the ugly truth: Hollywood loves the performance of resistance, but recoils from the responsibility of confronting genocide.

The spectacle vs the silence

Einbinder's speech mattered. 

A Jewish comedian using one of the industry's glitziest stages to say "free Palestine" broke through the suffocating silence that so often surrounds the issue. Her voice carried moral weight precisely because it challenged the weaponisation of Jewish identity by the state of Israel.

Einbinder's words matter. Not just because they were bold, not just because they were funny, but because they broke through the glitz and glamour with a reminder: comedy is resistance, boycott is power, and freedom is non-negotiable.

But the fact that her two words became a viral moment while the killing of Palestinian filmmakers barely registered in Hollywood news cycles is the deeper indictment. 

The industry thrives on the illusion of political bravery while remaining silent about the very people whose stories it profits from.

When 'No Other Land' won an Oscar, the room stood in applause. When its co-creator's village was attacked by settlers and his home stormed by soldiers, that applause curdled into indifference.

A genocide declared, yet silence maintained

The hypocrisy grows starker when set against reality. 

Just a day after Einbinder's speech, the UN's Independent Commission of Inquiry released a chilling 72-page report declaring Israel guilty of genocide. 

Four out of five genocidal acts defined under international law were documented: killing Palestinians, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions of life designed to destroy, and preventing births.

Since October 2023, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed. 

World’s silence echoes louder than screams of wounded Palestinians

Fertility clinics bombed. Embryos destroyed. Entire family lines were erased from the civil registry. Gaza reduced to rubble, famine engineered as a weapon.

Israel rejects these findings, as a genocidal state would, insisting its war is against Hamas. But let's be honest: this didn't begin on 7 October. The ethnic cleansing has been going on for more than 75 years. 

Every bombing, every settlement, every blockade is part of that same story. Genocide is not just sudden mass killings; it is the slow grinding of a people out of existence.

And yet, in Hollywood, these horrors barely surface unless a celebrity dares to puncture the spectacle.

Boycotts, and the threat of truth

The silence isn't accidental; it's structural. When 3,900 artists signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge to boycott Israeli institutions complicit in apartheid, Paramount condemned them. 

In response, Javier Bardem, no stranger to Hollywood power, called the studios out:

"Film Workers for Palestine do not target any individuals based on identity. The targets are those film companies and institutions that are complicit and are whitewashing or justifying the genocide and its apartheid regime. I cannot work with someone who justifies or supports the genocide. That's as simple as that. We shouldn't be able to do that, in this industry or any other industry."

Boycotts are not erasure. They are but mere accountability. From Montgomery to apartheid South Africa, history shows their radical potential. But in Hollywood, the mere suggestion of a boycott is treated as heresy because it exposes how deeply the industry is tied to whitewashing violence.

This is why Einbinder's words matter. 

Comedy disarms. It sneaks truth into places where lectures would be dismissed. It destabilises power, forcing audiences to confront uncomfortable realities.

Her Emmy speech built momentum with laughs ("Go Birds, f**k ICE") and then landed with the gut punch - "free Palestine." 

A laugh, a gasp, and suddenly the world's most silenced issue was centre stage.

But the danger is that Hollywood will treat it as just that: a punchline. 

Jewish actor Hannah Einbinder declared “Free Palestine” in her Emmy speech

A viral moment to be clipped, shared, and then safely forgotten while actual Palestinian filmmakers are hunted and killed.

Einbinder's Jewish identity is central here. In a world where criticism of Israel is smeared as antisemitism, her refusal to conflate Jewishness with occupation carries moral clarity.

As philosopher Judith Butler argues, Jewish ethics are rooted not in domination, but in obligation to the other. By declaring "free Palestine," Einbinder is not betraying her Jewishness - she's reclaiming it from a state that has turned survival into oppression.

That reclamation matters. It disrupts the weaponisation of identity that Hollywood has so often used to excuse its silence.

The hypocrisy we can't ignore

Hollywood loves to project itself as progressive, as fearless, as standing on "the right side of history." But when Palestinian filmmakers are murdered or forced into exile, when UN reports confirm genocide, when children starve under siege, Hollywood mostly averts its gaze.

It is hypocritical to cheer a speech while ignoring the reality it points to. 

It is hypocritical to celebrate Palestinian art while abandoning Palestinian artists. 

It is hypocritical to claim liberal values while punishing boycotts and condemning those who refuse complicity.

And yet, as hypocritical as Hollywood is, it has influence. 

Its stars shape conversations, its films shape memory, its silences shape what the world forgets. That power can protect genocide - or it can help dismantle it.

Hannah Einbinder cracked open that hypocrisy. Javier Bardem named it. Palestinian filmmakers like Basel Adra and the late Awdah al-Hathaleen live - and die - within it.

Hollywood cannot keep playing both sides. Neutrality, as Desmond Tutu reminded us, only sides with the oppressor.

So yes, "Go Birds, fuck ICE, free Palestine" mattered. Not as a viral punchline, but as a mirror. A mirror held up to an industry that must decide: will it keep hiding behind applause, or will it finally stand against genocide?

Ethical consumption of media

Here's the tricky part: can we love an actor's performance while ignoring their silence on global issues?

Should we separate the art from the artist - or, in Einbinder's case, reward the courage of aligning both?

Her Emmy night shout-out reminds us that ethical consumption of media is not passive. It's not just about what we watch, but who we empower through our support.

By backing Einbinder, by celebrating her comedy, we also validate her politics. We tell Hollywood: audiences are ready for artists who risk their careers to stand for something.

When Hannah Einbinder says "free Palestine" on Emmy night, she's not just speaking as a comedian or an actor. She's speaking as someone who understands the stakes of silence, someone using her privilege to disrupt the comfort of an industry that too often prefers neutrality.

In a world where Israel has been accused by a UN commission of committing genocide in Gaza, killing thousands, displacing millions, and even targeting medical facilities, journalists, and children, neutrality is complicity.

So yes, Einbinder's words matter. Not just because they were bold, not just because they were funny, but because they broke through the glitz and glamour with a reminder: comedy is resistance, boycott is power, and freedom is non-negotiable.

"Go Birds, f**k ICE, free Palestine." Sometimes the best political take is just three jokes in a row.

Zarin Tasnim is an Online journalist at The Business Standard

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard