Uzo Aduba, Julianna Margulies, Jerry O’Connell were among the over 400 Hollywood professionals who signed a letter calling for the end of anti-Israel, “extremist rhetoric and the spread of misinformation” following the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in Washington, D.C.
The letter in part denounced “well-meaning celebrities and public figures” who its signatories believed have been “manipulated” by misinformation and pro-Palestine rhetoric.
“Hamas, Iran and their allies and ideological sympathizers in the West have flooded the world with their hateful lies and antisemitic incitement since Oct. 7 — lies designed to demonize Israel, the Jewish people and their supporters,” the letter, which was released by nonprofit Creative Community for Peace on Wednesday, reads. “Some well-meaning celebrities and public figures have been manipulated by this constant stream of misinformation, which they have also helped to amplify.”
The letter came in response to the fatal May 21 shooting in D.C., which led to the deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgram. Authorities arrested a 31-year-old suspect named Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago resident who confessed to the shooting. Rodriguez has since been charged with first-degree murder and murder of foreign officials.
“I did it for Gaza,” Rodriguez said at the time of arrest, according an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Other figures — including Mayim Bialik, Sharon Osbourne, Patricia Heaton, Sherry Lansing, Haim Saban, Rebecca De Mornay, Ben Silverman and Debra Messing — also signed the Creative Community for Peace letter.
Bialik said in a statement through the organization’s release of the letter that the spreading and circulation of misinformation about the Jewish community is a case of history repeating itself.
“Peddling lies about Jews has deadly consequences. For the past two years, public figures and influencers with millions of followers have consistently promoted fallacious and menacing anti-Israel propaganda masquerading as advocacy,” Bialik said. “This stream of lies against the Jewish people and the Jewish ancestral homeland has now – unsurprisingly to anyone watching closely – turned deadly in the United States. This moment requires public figures to use their platforms responsibly. We implore these individuals to lend their voices to those of moral clarity, peace and tolerance, instead of division, distortion and delegitimization.”
In a joint statement, CCFP co-founder and chairman David Renzer and executive director Ari Ingel called the sharing of false and antisemitic information “a toxic mix of distortion, bigotry and incitement.”
“For the past 600 days, the anti-Israel movement has espoused an unrelenting stream of extremist rhetoric to demonize Israel and anyone who supports the country — it’s a toxic mix of distortion, bigotry and incitement,” they said. “Given the power of social media, it’s incumbent on entertainers and public figures, with their ability to influence millions around the world, to use their platforms responsibly. Without a course correction, we will only see more hate, more violence, and more innocent people targeted simply for being Jewish.”
At the end of the letter, the Creative Community for Peace signees called on their Hollywood peers to push back against “extremist rhetoric.”
“We call on all our colleagues to reject this extremist rhetoric and the spread of misinformation so that we can all work toward a future in which all Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace and dignity,” the CCFP letter reads.
Read the letter in full here.
