More than 500 additional entertainment figures have signed an open letter condemning “Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech.
The letter was first published Monday with 450 signatures, but another 500 people have attached themselves to the statement as of Tuesday morning.
Glazer made the controversial comment that is still causing backlash while accepting the Oscar for Best International Feature for his film “Zone of Interest.”
“We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” Glazer read on stage.
The open letter intends to pushback on Glazer’s phrasing saying, “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”
“The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history,” the letter continues. “It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood.”
As of Monday, signatures included people across the entertainment industry including actors, directors, producers, executives and more. Notable signees featured Debra Messing, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amy Pascal, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Eli Roth and Sherry Lansing.
Many of those same individuals have signed other open letters from the entertainment community in support of Israel following the events of Oct. 7.
