Jennifer Lawrence has spoken up about Israel’s war in Gaza and censorship in the US.
Speaking at a press conference for her new film Die, My Love at the San Sebastián film festival, Lawrence responded to several journalists’ questions about fraught political topics, despite a festival moderator attempting to shut them down, according to Deadline.
When asked about Israel’s violence in Gaza, which many of the world’s leading experts have called a genocide, Lawrence replied: “I’m terrified. It’s mortifying. What’s happening is no less than a genocide and it’s terrible.”
“What makes me so sad is the disrespect in the discourse of American politics right now and how that is going to be normalized to the kids right now,” she added. “It’s going to be normal to them that politicians lie.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people, injured more than 160,000, and reduced much of the territory to ruin since Hamas-led attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel on 7 October 2023. About 15 of every 16 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since it broke a ceasefire in March have been civilians, according to data from the independent violence-tracking organization Acled. The Guardian revealed last month that internal data from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found a civilian death toll of 83% between the outbreak of the war in October 2023 and May of this year.
Lawrence urged attendees at the film festival to “stay focused on who is responsible” rather than directing their anger at actors and artists, probably a nod to a recent pledge signed by more than 400 entertainment industry figures to boycott Israeli film institutions they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”. The pledge, inspired by the cultural boycott that contributed to the end of apartheid in South Africa, differentiates between complicit institutions that continue to partner with the Israeli government, such as the Jerusalem film festival, Haifa international film festival, Docaviv and TLVFest, and individual film-makers. “This refusal takes aim at institutional complicity, not identity,” reads the pledge, whose signees include Mark Ruffalo, Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Ava DuVernay, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall and Yorgos Lanthimos.
Lawrence is not among the signees, nor has she signed an open letter, signed by Liev Schreiber, Debra Messing, Mayim Bialik and 1,200 other entertainment figures, calling the pledge “a document of misinformation that advocates for arbitrary censorship and the erasure of art”.
Asked her thoughts on attacks on free speech in the US, Lawrence answered: “Our freedom of speech and expression is under attack and I think the world of cinema and using your voice in artistic ways, having festivals like this where we can learn from each other and realize we are all connected and matter and deserve empathy and freedom, are important.”
Lawrence is set to receive the honorary Donostia award at the San Sebastián film festival on Friday, before screening Die, My Love, on which she also served as producer.
The film, directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on a novel by Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz, depicts a mother in rural America, played by Lawrence, battling psychosis that imperils relations with her husband, played by Robert Pattinson. Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek and LaKeith Stanfield also star in the film, set for domestic release on 7 November.
