Greta Gerwig admitted she did not know what she was signing when she lent her name to an anti-Israel petition.
Actress Greta Gerwig says she regrets signing a letter that calls for the cancellation of the performance of two Israeli plays in Los Angeles.
In July, she signed a letter along with 60 other artists urging Lincoln Center to cancel performances of “To The End Of The Land,” a play based on a novel of the same name by Israeli novelist David Grossman. The signatories took issue with the fact that the play was funded by Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs in North America.
Creative Community for Peace, an organization of prominent members of the entertainment industry dedicated to promoting the arts as a means to peace and to countering the cultural boycott of Israel, announced last week that due to their efforts in assembling a group of top Hollywood executives rejecting the boycott call, Gerwig retracted her support.
The CCFP is made up of prominent members of the music industry, including Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake.
Gerwig told the New York Post that she was not knowledgeable enough on the issue to have taken a stand on it and that a close friend had asked her to sign the petition.
“I am generally careful about the causes I support, but in this case I was not. I was unfamiliar with the complexities of the letter and I did not take the time to study them,” she conceded.
She explained that “because the letter had already been signed by many other friends and collaborators I know to be thoughtful and honorable people, I agreed to add my name.”
While she respects “the passion and integrity of others who signed this letter, for me to put my name to something outside of my personal realm of knowledge or experience was a mistake — my mistake — and I am sorry for any confusion or hurt I may have caused.”
The film “Lady Bird,” Gerwig’s directorial debut, is considered a serious contender for an Oscar.
‘Selectively Silencing Art is Dangerous’
More than 45 high-level entertainment industry executives signed a letter denouncing the “hypocritical, discriminatory, and dangerous” Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, after activists associated with the movement demanded that Lincoln Center cancel the Israeli play.
“Selectively silencing art is dangerous,” they wrote in the letter. “Art unites us, and helps us get past what makes us different while connecting us at the core of what makes us similar. We — and especially Israelis and Palestinians, who require being brought together more than anything — need more of it, not less.”
