Roseanne Barr slams Israel-haters, calls for Jewish prayer at Temple Mount

“I’m a real Jew Jew…. My hope is that someday soon I will be able to pray at the holiest site in the world, free of arrest,” Barr said.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

American-Jewish Emmy award-winning actress Roseanne Barr blasted opponents of Israel in a speech before a packed audience in Jerusalem at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center Sunday night.

Known for her forthright language, Barr called the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) Movement a “Nazi boycott” whose purpose is “just to keep people fighting so we don’t watch when they are unloading their trucks of money and driving away.”

But she also warned of their tenacity. “They never stop,” she said. “If they don’t win for a while, they take 70 years off and they always come back. That is our history – every 70 years a generation will rise up against us.”

The outspoken comedienne also discussed her personal relationship with God, saying that she spoke to God “all the time” as a child and called for the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

“I’m a real Jew Jew,” she said. “And tonight I’m speaking as a Jewish grandmother, from the holiest city in the world to me, which is Jerusalem. My hope is that someday soon I will be able to pray at the holiest site in the world, free of arrest – because it is against international law for a Jew to pray at the Temple Mount. Now why is that?”

While incorrectly stating that it was against international law for Jews to do so – rather, it is the status quo agreed upon by Israel and the Jordanian Waqf, which administers the site – Barr was accurate in that Jews who have been suspected of uttering a prayer on the holiest Jewish site have been arrested and removed from the Mount.

During the Q and A, she continued bashing those whom she considers anti-Israel. Discussing U.S. politics, she said that “Hamas is in Congress” now, referring to Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, two new representatives who have already gained notoriety for hostile statements about the Jewish state.

She also slammed anti-Zionist Jews.

“The Jews who are out there turning on Israel, who align with people who say they’re going to genocide us, and drive us into the sea… those Jews need to be censored. They need to be confronted. And they’re in all leadership roles. They lull us into a false sense of security. Don’t be tricked,” she said.

More than 300 people came out to hear Barr at the event, called “Hollywood and Hasbarah,” which was originally scheduled to take place in the Knesset. Labor MK Hilik Bar, who invited the actress, said the change in venue had been forced upon him because Knesset bylaws prevented him from holding such gatherings during election season.

Barr’s trip is being funded by World Values Network (WVN), founded by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who accompanied her to Israel. In a show of support, the two visited the small Jewish community in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday.

Last week, as part of WVN’s new anti-BDS campaign, they toured Samaria, where she planted trees and praised the Jews of the region, saying that they “are standing on the front line of the State of Israel.”

BDSRoseanne BarrTemple MountUS politics