Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

BDS Leader Lashes Out Against Israel Junket in Oscars Swag Bag

Among goodies like a year’s worth of Audi rentals, a walking tour of Japan, a $250 vape, and a very strange cosmetic procedure called the “vampire breast lift”, one of the gifts in this year’s Oscar “Swag Bag” is a $55,000 VIP trip to Israel.

Jennifer Lawrence, Sylvester Stallone, Kate Winslet, Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio are just some of over twenty Hollywood VIPs who will be receiving the swag bag. “Their visit [to Israel] will have enormous resonance among millions of fans and followers,” according to the Israeli minister of tourism, Yariv Levin.

But Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian leader of the BDS movement, called on the Academy to reject this offer, this Wednesday, claiming that it “evokes memories of Hollywood’s past collaboration with criminal regimes.”

Referring to “Hunger Games” star, Jennifer Lawrence, who will also be receiving the swag bag, Barghouti said:

“There are no Hunger Games in Gaza but there is real hunger, and it is induced by years of Israeli occupation and siege. We hope Oscar nominees will take the moral path of rejecting this free propaganda gift from Capitol while its brutal troops and settlers burn and colonize our District 12.”

The 88th Academy Awards will take place later this month, on February 28.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.