Playwright Tony Kushner has come out in support of  Oscar winner Glazer’s controversial Oscars speech, which has divided the Hollywood film industry.

My Oscar Book:

Speaking on Haaretz Podcast which was released Wednesday, Kushner, the Oscar nominated screenwriter, was asked about the Gaza war and brought up Glazer’s speech which has been attacked by some Jewish figures in Hollywood and was the subject of recent open letter signed by 1000 people (and counting).

He brings up the blowback to Glazer’s Oscars speech, which he described as “unimpeachable, irrefutable statement.”

Asked if he agrees with Glazer’s comments, Kushner says, “Of course, I mean, who doesn’t?”

Kushner explains, “What Glazer’s saying is so simple. He’s saying Jewishness, Jewish identity, Jewish history, the history of the Holocaust, the history of Jewish suffering must not be used as excuse for a project of dehumanizing or slaughtering other people.”

“This is a misappropriation of what it means to be a Jew, what the Holocaust meant, and he rejects that. Who doesn’t agree with that?”

“What kind of person thinks that what’s going on now in Gaza is acceptable?,” Kushner says. “And if you find yourself saying out loud and in public, ‘oh it’s fine with me what they’re doing,’ because you feel that it’s the only choice for you, because you’re a Jew, is to defend everything that Israel does shame on you.”

Kushner, who has been a long time critic of Israel’s, and particularly Netanyahu’s, policies and treatment of Palestinians, addressed accusations that calling for a ceasefire was antisemitism. “The people that I know who are passionately involved in calls for a ceasefire, these are not people who are antisemites, their interest is not in destroying Israel and certainly their interest is not in pogroms against Jews elsewhere.”

“What they’re really interested in, and the passion and the rage that you’re seeing, is because thousands of lives are at stake, tens of thousands millions of lives are at stake. Because before our eyes, what really looks a lot like ethnic cleansing, to me, is going on,” Kushner says.