The prevailing opinion during the extravagant award ceremony season is that, among the camera flashes, glittering looks, and red carpets, it's advisable to avoid drama. The most influential people in the world, whose audience numbers would give us headaches if we tried to calculate how many people worldwide are exposed to them, those whose every word shakes the pillars of the media, send balanced smiles from ear to ear toward the cameras, well-dressed after hours of glam, and wear the "what a shame I lost, but well done to whoever won" expression during close-ups, but in recent years it's evident that this platform serves as a stage for much more than that – for expressing positions and protest by Hollywood's detached stars.
This was exemplified by the #MeToo movement that swept Hollywood and the world, when stars were seen wearing the famous pin. This was also the case when the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, and it can be expected that this will be the case in the future with issues that will concern the stars of Tinseltown. This phenomenon reached its peak last night at the Emmys, when prominent stars expressed protest about the war in Gaza on the red carpet in what can only be called a "Palestine-fest" – Spanish Oscar winner Javier Bardem, who was dressed in a black and festive suit, wore a keffiyeh in Palestinian flag colors around his neck and raised his hand in a clenched fist as a symbol of Palestinian resistance; comedian Megan Stalter showed off a bag with a sticker reading "Ceasefire Now!"; stars of "The White Lotus" Aimee Lou Wood and Natasha Rothwell (and others) as well as "Hacks" star, Jewish actress Hannah Einbinder wore the red Artists4Ceasefire pin, with the latter's statements on the ceremony stage being unprecedented.
At the end of her acceptance speech after winning the Emmy, the Jewish star concluded with "F**k ICE, Free Palestine" – an unconventional ending on the coveted and ceremonial stage, whose boundaries, despite such and other regulations, are very blurred, it turns out. Therefore, the immediate question that arises is – why don't pro-Israel stars feel comfortable wearing hostage pins or speaking in the same manner?
Why those same stars with noble conscience don't go up on the ceremony stage and say "F**k Hamas, free the hostages" is a question for another day, but the answer is clear – you can be political at award ceremonies, as long as you're not pro-Israel. Wearing the yellow ribbon – whose entire message is to keep the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and terror organizations associated with it in consciousness and call for their release – constitutes a death sentence for your career in Hollywood.
A case study is Gal Gadot's controversy at the Golden Globe, when she chose to wear jewelry as a tribute to the hostages but not the pin itself, claiming that, according to the ceremony's regulations, the pin constitutes a "political statement." The star, whose Israeli origin is known to all, hasn't maintained a low profile since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, but, on the contrary, she deals with the issue in front of millions of her followers on social media constantly. So what explains this?
Behind the scenes, Einbinder said: "I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and longstanding … institution that is really separate to the ethno-nationalist state." At the ceremony, she added: "The Film Workers for Palestine boycott does not boycott individuals; it only boycotts institutions that are directly complicit in the genocide." Does it really?
If that's the case, couldn't the fresh Emmy winner have mentioned the Israeli hostages held in Gaza – who don't contribute to any "genocide" – in her speech?
The answer is that any expression of solidarity with Israeli suffering is forbidden. It's not cool, it's treated as inhuman, and thus, anyone and anything identified with Israel. You can say, do, display, and wear everything – as long as you're on the "right" side of the trend.
