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There was a time at the Oscars when an actor who had just won would thank his film’s producer, director and then his mother. He might have joked, “hugs to mom – she’s watching tonight.” That homey apolitical stance shifted in 1973 when screen star Marlon Brando, in a stunning move, dispatched Indigenous rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather to the Oscar stage on his behalf to refuse his award for Best Actor in The Godfather. Littlefeather cited the reason for his rejection of the Oscar was “bad treatment of Indigenous people in America”.
In 2015, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite – was initiated by activist April Reign – protested that not one of 20 nominees that year was a person of colour.
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In 2016, when Black comedian Chris Rock emceed the Oscars, he opened by asking aloud, “Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist.” That same year only Dustin Hoffman refused to attend because of racism in America.
Don’t stop talking about Gaza
This year, the media noted only one outlier — Spanish actor Javier Bardem. He wore a “No to War” (No a la Guerra) button –and yelled “No to war and Free Palestine,” just before he announced the winner for Best International Feature.
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Also worth noting at this year’s Oscars, three films about Palestinians and Palestine were nominated yet not one won an award. The three are Palestine 36, All That’s Left of You, and The Voice of Hind Rajab.
It’s as though Hollywood said “been there, done that” before the ’26 awards night. Indeed in 2025 the critically-acclaimed Israeli-Palestinian film about Gaza –No Other Land—won Best Documentary Feature. Now after Israel has killed more than 73,000 in its war on Palestinians, and committed the war crime of genocide in Gaza, it is suffering a fade-out.
In 2026, the most talked about film that did not win was The Voice of Hind Rajab. The Voice of Hind Rajab is a drama created from a true story from Gaza City in January 2024. Six year-old Hind, a Palestinian girl, was in a car with her aunt, uncle and four cousins trying to escape Israel’s bombings. Stuck in a street with towers of concrete rubble everywhere, one of three Israeli tanks advanced on the car. The tank fired more than 335 bullets into the car killing the two adults and four children. Hind called emergency on a mobile phone as her last cousin, Layan age 15, lay dying next to her. The Palestinian Red Crescent managed to patch Hind into her mother’s phone. Hind begged for someone to rescue her; her last tearful words to her mother were “Don’t leave me alone, Mama. I am tired. I am thirsty. And I am wounded.”
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Though the Red Crescent sent an ambulance, the Israelis deliberately denied it “safe passage” which delayed help for hours. By then it was too late. What’s worse: when the ambulance finally arrived on the scene, the IDF shelled it murdering the two paramedics.
The world was shocked by little Hind’s death among all those others. The film garnered the production support of folks like Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonathan Glazer (he who won best international film for Zone of Interest and used his speech to condemn Israel), Spike Lee, and Michael Moore.
Last Sunday before the Academy Awards, I thought about The Voice of Hind Rajab (stream on Amazon Prime, or Apple TV). I thought about the similarities between Israel’s murders of Hind and her family in the car and news about Israel’s latest targeted killings.
On Sunday news broke that the Israeli forces deliberately shot and killed four members of the Bani Odeh family, the father, mother and two boys, age 5 and 7 in their car in the West Bank village of Tammun. All were killed by Israelis shooting bullets thru the windshield into the heads and faces of the family. The father, Ali Khaled, was shot in the left hand and chest too. Two other sons were injured, but alive. One, aged 11, was dragged injured out of the car, beaten and heard the soldiers say, “We killed dogs.” The family was driving home from Nablus 23 km away – after a shopping trip for clothes and toys to celebrate Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan this Thursday. They turned into their street. Witnesses said the gunmen were not in uniformand drove vehicles with Palestinian plates. Not only was it a totally unprovoked attack on the Palestinian family, but the Red Crescent said the Israelis had prevented ambulance crews from reaching the injured instead ordered them to leave.
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A family returns from shopping– Israel deems them “an immediate threat”
No one is holding their breath waiting for an investigation about these two “events” – or mass murders. Israel was happy to ignore the Rajab killings until an international calibre filmmaker Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania came on the scene, and, together with some big Hollywood names, produced a stunning film. On Sunday, Israel’s military and police said their forces opened fire on the Bani Odehs after believing the family in the car was “an immediate threat.” [Isn’t that always the excuse?] Apparently the incident is “under investigation.”
How does Israel spin this stuff? Now that world attention is diverted to Iran and the Gulf states Israel keeps up their genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The arms, weapons, ammunition, tanks, drones, quadcopters and more overwhelmingly come from the US. Canada ships more than $1 billion in ammunition and weapons each year to the US and much of it is sent on to Israel—so it can keep up a genocide over 2.5 years. We laughingly list the names of the US’s most steadfast allies at the UN the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Mali …. But then we must stop. Surely one of the greatest US allies is still Canada — PM Carney’s new plan to boost production and sales of weapons will ensure an endless supply to the US –and then to Israel. Note that Canadian parliamentarians just overwhelmingly voted down a private members’ bill by NDPer Jenny Kwan to close the loophole that allows this to happen. Still, 15 brave Liberal MPs had the guts to vote against their to close the loophole.
Image at the top: A mosque, destroyed during Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza, is surrounded by tents for displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, February 15, 2026 [credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]
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