JAVIER Bardem, one of the leading Spanish actors of his generation, has provoked a storm of controversy after calling Israeli soldiers ‘Nazis’ in a post shared on social media.
The Academy-Award winner posted a video on Instagram showing a sniper from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) shooting an unarmed Palestinian youngster as soldiers cheer and whoop in the background.
The clip was originally circulated in 2018 and provoked an international outcry at the time, with the IDF saying comments made by the soldiers – which included cries of ‘Wow!’, ‘What a video!’ and ‘Son of a bitch!’ – ‘do not correspond to the degree of restraint expected of IDF soldiers and will be dealt with accordingly by the commanders’.
“The IDF are Nazis,” Bardem told his 929,000 followers on Instagram in a caption accompanying the video.
He added: “Do you remember Amon Goth in Schindler’s List? A sadistic SS officer who shot prisoners from his balcony purely for entertainment. He embodied the banality of evil and the impunity of cruelty within an oppressive military apparatus.
“Today, that same logic of terror and dehumanisation is what the IDF applies against the Palestinian people.”
While many users on social media were supportive of Bardem’s message, others accused him of ‘Holocaust intervention’, being ‘ignorant’ and ‘just another bigot’.
Earlier this week, a UN-backed food security body confirmed that famine was occurring in Gaza City, adding that more than 500,000 people in the Strip are facing ‘starvation, destitution and death’ – although the report has been rejected by Israel’s foreign ministry.
Over 53,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since October 7, the date when over 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas fighters.
According to figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database, over 83% of the dead in Gaza have been civilians.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.