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Javier Bardem Denounces Israel at San Sebastian: “What’s Happened in Gaza Is Unacceptable”
Lily Ford
Mon, September 23, 2024



Palestinian flags flank the red carpet at the San Sebastian Film Festival. As the city celebrates Spain’s most prestigious film fest, demonstrators have taken to the streets protesting the 40,000-plus men, women and children who have been killed in Gaza since the war with Israel began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Among those taking a pro-Gaza stance during the film event on the Spanish coast is Spanish national treasure Javier Bardem, who received the fest’s Donostia Award.

At the press conference, he took the opportunity to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and denounce the actions of the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who have continued air strikes in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I welcome [the award] with great joy but I am not in the mood for celebrations,” a translation of Bardem’s statement in the Spanish press said. “What has happened in Gaza is unacceptable, dehumanizing.”

Bardem said he believes the Israeli government is “the most radical government” the country has ever seen and has committed war crimes in Gaza. “The atrocious and reprehensible attacks by Hamas in October do not justify the massive global punishment that the Palestinian population is suffering,” he continued. “I believe that the impunity with which the Israeli government enjoys its actions in Gaza and the West Bank has to change,” he added, imploring the U.S. and U.K. in particular to reconsider their “unconditional support” for Benjamin Netanyahu.

On San Sebastian’s most famous beach, La Concha, protestors wrote pro-Gaza messages in the sand for all on the promenade to read over the weekend.

Bardem accepted his Donostia Award Friday night, gushing over his wife Penélope Cruz. The actor, who has had starring roles in Dune: Part Two, No Country for Old Men — which bagged him an Academy Award — and Skyfall, among myriad celebrated Spanish projects like Huevos de Oro and El detective y la muerte, accepted the award from his siblings, Monica and Carlos Bardem.

The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival runs through Sept. 28.