Desperate to suppress truth about Gaza genocide, 150 pro-Israel Hollywood figures attempt to get Emmy nomination for Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda rescinded

The monumental crimes of the Israeli regime in Gaza—the mass killing of civilians, indiscriminate bombings, forced starvation, destruction of infrastructure, widespread torture and abuse—have become known to tens of millions around the world. Netanyahu, Biden-Harris and their accomplices in the UK, France, Germany and elsewhere are widely despised.

Nonetheless, diehard supporters of the Zionist regime continue their efforts to prevent the truth about the Gaza genocide from reaching the public.

Along those lines, 150 so-called Hollywood creatives have written an open letter demanding that a News and Documentary Emmy Award nomination for Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda be rescinded. Owda has created an online video series, It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive, in which she documents the destruction of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). By May 2024, she had accumulated some 4.1 million followers.

The News and Documentary Emmy nominations were announced July 25, and the winners will be revealed September 25 and 26.

Owda, in her various videos, provides images of the mass devastation in Gaza and the severe hardships suffered by its population—the constant evacuations, the long marches, the food shortage, the sanitation and hygiene calamity. She was also an eyewitness to the Al-Shifa Hospital bombing and massacre, lyingly blamed by the Israelis and the US media on the Palestinians themselves. The videos also reveal, despite everything, the resilience of the Palestinian people and their determination to resist the bloody Zionist-imperialist oppression.

Owda’s video updates and her very ability to survive and report the facts have infuriated the pro-Israeli lobby.

The filthy letter directed against Owda emanates from the “Creative Community For Peace” (CCFP). The misnamed group of mediocrities and nonentities has in fact come together to promote war and mass murder.

We have encountered the CCFP before. In October, the organization collected the signatures of more than 1,000 figures, including a handful of prominent names, to express support for the Tel Aviv regime and its genocidal offensive, then in its initial stages. “As Israel takes the necessary steps to defend its citizens in the coming days and weeks,” declared the open letter, “social media will be overrun by an orchestrated misinformation campaign spearheaded by Iran.” We appropriately described the letter as “a right-wing provocation, organized by mouthpieces for the Tel Aviv regime.”

From 1,000+ last autumn, the CCFP has come down in the world. It has only managed to gather 150 “entertainment industry leaders” as part of its campaign against Owda, most of them known only to friends and family. In addition to billionaire and major Democratic Party donor Haim Saban, the list includes three well-known actresses, Rebecca De Mornay, Debra Messing, who will sign anything if it includes attacks on the Palestinians, and Selma Blair, known for her racist, anti-Muslim rant on social media in February 2024 (“Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate”).

Among the other signatories: Rick Rosen, co-founder of Endeavor, the major talent agency; Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures; and media executives Ben Silverman, Modi Wiczyk and Fernando Szew.

The smear letter calls on the National Academy for Television and Arts and Sciences (NATAS) to cancel Owda’s nomination, in the category of Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form, on the grounds that the Palestinian journalist has a “history of promoting dangerous falsehoods, spreading antisemitism, and condoning violence.” The letter doesn’t provide the slightest evidence of any of this.

It asserts that her affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), “a United States designated terrorist organization, raises serious ethical concerns that cannot and should not be ignored. Honoring someone linked to an organization that has caused so much pain and suffering is not just irresponsible; it is a direct affront to the values we hold dear in the entertainment industry.”

As is so often the case, one has to rub one’s eyes. These people are defending the slaughter of as many as 186,000 people, most of them defenseless civilians, including tens of thousands of women and children, by the Israeli military. The Nazi-like crimes identify the IDF, armed and encouraged by Washington, as a leading force of terror and violence on the planet.

The PFLP is a left-nationalist organization, most prominent in the 1960s and 1970s, when its leader was George Habbash. It remains today the second-largest organization in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) after Fatah. Whether Owda has had any affiliation with the PLFP is unknown to us, but she has every right to belong to such a movement.

The CCFP letter urges NATAS “to rescind Owda’s nomination to prevent glorifying a figure associated with terrorism and ensure the Emmys remain a symbol of peace and artistic collaboration.” Again, the hypocrisy is almost supernatural.

To its credit, the NATAS has so far rejected the right-wing demand. NATAS CEO President Adam Sharp, in a reply to the CCFP, asserted that for nearly half a century the News and Documentary Emmys

have recognized excellence in television journalism … The honored programs and reports have taken viewers to the front lines of every world conflict, probed political and cultural divides, and sought to illuminate even the darkest circumstances. Some of these works have been controversial, giving a platform to voices that certain viewers may find objectionable or even abhorrent. But all have been in the service of the journalistic mission to capture every facet of the story.

Sharp goes on to explain that It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive

was reviewed by two successive panels of independent judges, including senior editorial leadership from each significant U.S. broadcast news network. It was selected for nomination from among more than 50 submissions in one of the year’s most competitive categories.

The piece was also recognized for journalistic achievement by the Peabody Awards and the Edward R. Murrow Awards, each administered by processes and organizations wholly separate from and independent of NATAS and the News & Documentary Emmys.

Sharp indicates an awareness of reports

that appear to show a then-teenaged Bisan Owda speaking at various PFLP-associated events between six and nine years ago. NATAS has been unable to corroborate these reports, nor has it been able, to date, to surface any evidence of more contemporary or active involvement by Owda with the PFLP organization.

“Most critically,” he goes on,

the content submitted for award consideration was consistent with competition rules and NATAS policies. Accordingly, NATAS has found no grounds, to date, upon which to overturn the editorial judgment of the independent journalists who reviewed the material.

Whether NATAS will stick by its guns and continue to reject this McCarthyite attack remains to be seen. In any case, the episode points to the increasing isolation and desperation of the pro-Zionist forces, including in Hollywood, where there is mass opposition to the ongoing genocide.

source : wsws.org