"Lana Melman is a leader in combating the cultural boycott campaign against Israel."
Greetings!

Some updates on artists, Israel, and anti-Semitism.

In the wake of the recent protests and the Black Lives Matter campaign, rapper Ice Cube landed in the middle of a Twitter storm with a series of anti-Semitic memes.

One of those memes, originally a London public mural that has since been taken down, depicts stereotyped Jewish bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of brown-skinned people.

The tweet was captioned, “All we have to do is stand up and their little game is over.”
When confronted about the anti-Semitic troupe, he replied that it was his "truth." 

Twitter responded with a tepid wrist slap saying the post “might contain sensitive content.”
In more bad news, film and TV stars Jameela Jamil (a British actress, radio presenter, and model), Chelsea Handler , and Jessica Chastain all posted and praised a 30-year old clip of Louis Farrakhan on the Phil Donahue Show calling it “powerful.” While both Jamil and Chastain took it down immediately following a backlash, Handler continued to share it for days with her 4 million Instagram followers.

The problem was not in the message - he speaks about the experience of Black Americans - but with the messenger, Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who has called Jews “termites,” praises Hitler and slanders the LGBTQ community.

While some celebrities, notably Jennifer Aniston , Jennifer Garner , Michelle Pfeiffer , Sean Hayes, Lisa Rinna , and rapper Busta Rhymes supported Handler’s posting of the video with “likes” and comments, many Jewish groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center loudly condemned it.
In better news, Tel Aviv University treated its film students - as well as those of us invited to tag along - to a Zoom interview with legendary actor/producer, Michael Douglas.

He had sage words to share with the aspiring filmmakers including, “you work as hard on your failures as you do on your successes” and reaffirmed his well-known support for Israel.

Growing up, peers told him he “was not Jewish” because although his famous father, actor Kirk Douglas was Jewish, his mother actress Diana Douglas was not. Fortunately, he has long since embraced his Jewish heritage.
Plus, one of my favorite actors, James Woods , recently t weeted in support of robust federal anti-BDS legislation . Woods has received 2 Academy Award nominations: one in the Best Actor category for Salvador and the other in the Best Supporting Actor for Ghosts of Mississippi .

And, drum roll please... In excellent news, Canadian superstar, Céline Dion has announced that she has rescheduled her Tel Aviv concert to June 20, 2021 . Tickets are on sale here .

Like most artists, Dion has been under constant pressure to boycott the Jewish homeland since she announced her Courage Tour originally scheduled for 2020.

“Remarkable article. What stood out to me was your ability to breakdown and clarity a complete position so that this could be understood. Clearly your experience has given you the gift of translating the complete argument and then bringing the listener toward truth. Good for you” –  Michael Jacobs, Academy award nominated writer/producer

Thank you all for your support.

Warm regards,
Lana Melman, CEO Liberate Art, Inc.

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