Celebrities wearing ‘red pins’ mean they support more killing of Israelis, say relatives of hostages

‘We saw the Oscars, we saw people wearing a pin that, for us Israelis, reminds us of the lynching in Ramallah in the Second Intifada.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, a brother-in-law of a hostage held in Gaza said that celebrities who wore ceasefire pins at the Oscars should instead prioritize the release of the hostages.

During an interview with six family members of Israeli captives held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Moshe Levi, brother-in-law of Omri Meran said, “We saw the Oscars, we saw people wearing a pin that, for us Israelis, reminds us of the lynching in Ramallah in the Second Intifada.”

The incident Levi referred to occurred on October 12th, 2000, shortly after the beginning of the Second Intifada, when members of a Palestinian funeral march tortured, mutilated, and killed two IDF reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yosef Avrahami.

He added, “I want them to wear this. If you support a ceasefire, you need to support the return of the hostages.”

“If you support the humanitarian cause of the Palestinians, you need to support the humanitarian cause of the hostages…My call to the American public: Unite behind us,” Levi added.

Earlier in the interview, Moshe Levi said, “We cannot normalize hostage taking, we cannot normalize terrorist action as committed by Hamas on October 7th.”

Last week at the Oscars, a number of celebrities, including Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef, and Mark Ruffalo wore red pins distributed by the group Artists4Ceasefire that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In addition, Jonathan Glazer, who was awarded the Oscar for Best International Film with the Holocaust movie “Zone of Interest,” delivered a scathing criticism of Israel which he blamed for “hijacking the Holocaust” in the war against Hamas and made ambiguous claims about disavowing his Jewish identity.

Moshe Levi recommended that activists who want to see an end to the conflict “narrow their focus” and make freeing the hostages the first priority.

“After that, ” he explained, “We have so many decades to finish this conflict and finally live in coexistence with our neighbors.”

Levi added, “But we will not be able to live with them in coexistence as long as hostages are still there and as long as radical elements like Hamas who are emboldened by people like those who were wearing those pins … are still in power in Gaza.”