While virtually all of Israel celebrated the release of three hostages – Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher – from Hamas captivity on Sunday, only the usual suspects in Hollywood had a kind word to say about it, and other celebrities mostly stayed silent.
Gal Gadot, Israel’s resident Hollywood superstar, posted three photos of each hostage being reunited with her mother, with a line about expressing hope that the remaining 94 hostages will soon come home as well to her Instagram story. She added another story with a video of the three young women setting foot on Israeli soil for the first time. Throughout the war, she has been Israel’s most high-profile supporter in the entertainment community.
Actress and wellness entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow posted individual images of each hostage with her mother, along with captions identifying each one.
Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, who visited Israel last summer as the guest of honor at the Jerusalem Film Festival, uploaded about a dozen posts celebrating the hostages’ release to her Instagram story.
Sacha Baron Cohen posted two videos, one of the hostages back on Israeli soil, and an earlier one showing harrowing images of these three young women menaced by a crowd of uniformed Hamas terrorists armed to the teeth as they moved from Hamas to Red Cross custody before returning to Israel.
Mayim Bialik, the actress/director/neuroscientist, posted several clips about the hostages to her story and several photos on her Instagram account. Actress Debra Messing posted video of the hostages returning home.
The always outspoken Michael Rapaport who, like many of these pro-Israel actors, visited Israel and met with hostage families during the past year, posted about 10 images and videos celebrating the return of the hostages, along with a video of himself on his Instagram story, saying, “How about f*** Gaza. F*** Gaza. F*** Gaza. F*** Gaza, and the 77 years of wasted time. F*** Gaza for letting themselves be overran by terrorists. F*** Gaza for not saying anything or pointing out where the hostages is, f*** Gaza. F*** Gaza and f*** Gaza. How about that?”
Actress Patricia Heaton posted a video of herself speaking about Emily Damari, with a note added after all three hostages were home.
Standup comic/actor Elon Gold posted thanks for the release of the three, along with a prayer that all the rest of the hostages would be released soon.
Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman, who posted video in the beginning of the war on Instagram calling for the release of the hostages, specifically the child hostages, did not mention either the release of Damari, Gonen, or Steinbrecher, or the continuing captivity of the Bibas children on her Instagram account yesterday.
Israel's critics silent on hostages
Among those who tend to criticize Israel and venerate Hamas, or at least, never say a bad word about it, Cynthia Nixon, the Sex and the City star, did post a photo of Romy and her mother with three hearts underneath it. Somehow, though, this post did not include a word about who they were, so many of her followers would have no clue that Romy is a 24-year-old Israeli woman who had been held by Hamas in Gaza for nearly 16 months. Nixon also posted a photo of Palestinian journalists saying they had “survived the genocide,” as well as a post about West Bank settlers attacking Palestinians.
Actress Susan Sarandon posted clips of Palestinians who were killed before the ceasefire went into effect, but, not surprisingly, did not post about the freed hostages or the fact that Hamas kept firing missiles into the south of Israel until the moment the ceasefire went into effect.
No mention of these three strong women finally escaping the clutches of a terror group came from frequent Israel critics Mark Ruffalo, John Cusack (who did post an Al-Jazeera report about former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir quitting the government over the ceasefire deal), Ilana Glazer, or Ramy Youssef. Many of these celebrities have been calling for a ceasefire since October 8, 2023, but now that one has actually gone into effect, they went quiet. It’s hard to imagine that they would have stayed silent if three young Palestinian women were surrounded by thousands of armed Israeli men after they were kidnapped into Israel and handed bizarre gift bags by the terrorists who held them captive for more than a year.