From CBS News:
U.S. actress Natalie Portman, this year's recipient of a prize dubbed the "Jewish Nobel," has pulled out of the June awards ceremony in Israel because of extreme distress over recent events in the country, the Genesis Prize Foundation said. The foundation said it was informed by Portman's representative that the Jerusalem-born Oscar winner "does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel."Reading between the lines of Portman's previous statements on Israel, one gets the impression that she has always been uncomfortable with Israel, but she preferred to be quiet about it.
In Thursday's statement, the Genesis foundation quoted a representative for Portman as saying that "recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her" and that "she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony."
Thursday's statement did not refer to specific events that would have prompted Portman's decision.
In 2015, she called Netanyahu a racist, but she added, "What I want to make sure is, I don't want to use my platform [the wrong way]. I feel like there's some people who become prominent, and then it's out in the foreign press. You know, shit on Israel. I do not. I don't want to do that."
Also in 2015, she said, "You look at your country and it’s not what you want it to be. It’s not what you wish it could be. But of course we have to strive for what could be, but also live with what exists, and what is, and be pragmatic.”
In 2014, she was quoted as saying, "I have a very close friend who lately has this European, anti-Israel way of thinking, and it’s very hard for me to have conversations with him. He says, ‘Can’t you be self-critical?’ But it’s hard to be publicly critical. It has to be done in a very delicate, well-thought-out manner. These issues come up at parties and dinners with people who don’t know a lot, and as someone who was born in Israel, you’re put in a position of defending Israel because you know how much is at stake. It’s become a much bigger part of my identity in recent years because it’s become an issue of survival."
She used to say that while she had problems with Israel, she would keep her mouth shut about them because she knew that any criticism she would offer was likely to be seized upon by antisemites and Israel-haters in ways she did not intend.
When the award was announced in November, Portman said, “I am deeply touched and humbled by this honor. I am proud of my Israeli roots and Jewish heritage; they are crucial parts of who I am. It is such a privilege to be counted among the outstanding Laureates whom I admire so much. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Genesis Prize Foundation, and look forward to using the global platform it provides to make a difference in the lives of women in Israel and beyond.”
Publicly renouncing an award, only months after saying how proud she was to be chosen for it, is going to give far more fuel to antisemites and haters than anything else she could have said or done.
Moreover, even though the prize is for significant accomplishments by Jews, her new refusal to take the award shows that she never deserved it.
The only thing that has happened between November and now was the Gaza riots. If this is the reason that Portman is now publicly anti-Israel, then we can learn that she never had good Jewish values to begin with.
It is wonderful that she won't eat pizza with her Israeli family on Passover when she visits them and she fasts on Yom Kippur, but Jewish values go way beyond the ritual.
The Gaza riots are being heavily misreported. A Jewish value would be to research the issue and not blindly believe the anti-Israel narrative.
A Jewish value would be to be "dan l'chaf zechut," to give her family's nation the benefit of the doubt. She is not doing that.
A Jewish value would be to put whatever criticisms you have in perspective, and not use them as fuel for the haters. She used to have that value and now she has thrown it in the garbage. And to do it on Israel's 70th birthday, on a day when it is so obvious that the Jewish state is miraculous no matter what your political perspective - it shows that Portman is insensitive as well.
It is a very good thing that Natalie Portman has revealed her true colors. She does not deserve this prize.
UPDATE:
A source at the Genesis Prize Foundation told Haaretz that Portman did not intend to return the $1 million dollar cash prize that comes with the award. Nor did she intend to return the additional $1 million matching grant promised to her by Israeli philanthropist Morris Kahn. “We have not received any information of the sort,” he said.Ah, a Jew who refuses to publicly accept an award but insists on taking the money won't foster antisemitism, right, Natalie?