person:richard gere

Richard Gere compare Hébron à la ségrégation dans le ’vieux Sud’ des États-Unis
Times of Israel Staff 24 mars 2017, 13:17
▻http://fr.timesofisrael.com/richard-gere-compare-hebron-a-la-segregation-dans-le-vieux-sud-des

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(...) Des guides de Breaking the Silence ont déambulé avec Gere le long de la rue Shuhada, l’ancienne rue principale et pôle commercial de Hébron. Les magasins arabes de la rue ont fermé leurs portes lors des émeutes de 1994 qui avaient été déclenchées par le massacre du Tombeau des Patriarches, au cours duquel un habitant israélien Baruch Goldstein avait tué 29 Palestiniens. La rue a été fermée à la circulation palestinienne durant la deuxième intifada.

En comparant la rue, aujourd’hui interdite aux Palestiniens, aux photos de cette artère commerciale vibrante au début des années 1990, la star hollywoodienne a déclaré que la situation ressemblait à la ségrégation raciale qui avait préparé l’éclosion du mouvement pour les droits civils.

« C’est exactement ce qu’était le ‘vieux Sud’ en Amérique. Les Noirs savaient où ils pouvaient aller », a-t-il indiqué à ses guides.

« Ils ne pouvaient pas boire à telle fontaine, ils ne pouvaient pas aller là ou là, ils ne pouvaient pas manger à tel endroit. Et c’était bien assimilé – vous ne franchissiez pas la limite si vous ne vouliez pas vous faire frapper à la tête ou être lynché ».

Il a également expliqué avoir été frappé par l’étrangeté de la situation.

« C’est quelque chose qui me rend fou, là… C’est vraiment bizarre et véritablement étrange », a-t-il dit. « Qui est propriétaire de la ville et ce sentiment de ‘je suis protégé, je peux faire tout ce que je veux’ ».

Après le passage d’une voiture appartenant à un Israélien et circulant à grande vitesse, Gere a comparé la scène entière au film futuriste ‘Mad Max’, qui décrit l’effondrement d’une société. Il a également ajouté que « c’est une énergie qui est vraiment lugubre… C’est comme un vieux film de cow-boy ou quelque chose dans le genre ». (...)

Richard Gere to Haaretz: Settlements are an absurd provocation, the occupation is indefensible
Allison Kaplan Sommer Mar 12, 2017 2:00 PM
▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/1.776584

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Richard Gere says his decision to travel to Jerusalem last week for the Israeli premiere of his new film, ‘Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer,’ wasn’t easy.

Perched on a bench in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a sweeping view of Jerusalem behind him, the movie star and human-rights activist told Haaretz that despite the fact he has traveled to the country numerous times in the past, this visit “was more complex than any other time I’ve come here.”

Over the course of a full month, Gere says he debated whether “it would be a good thing” for him to make the trip. With Israel swerving even further to the right in the Trump era, and an increasing tendency by the progressive left to embrace the tactic of boycott to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, many of Gere’s friends and colleagues in both the Israeli and U.S. human-rights communities told him they feared a movie star’s presence in Israel “would be co-opted by a dark government.”

“I had people on all sides – those who have been close friends and people I barely knew – telling me not to come,” he recounts. Even Israelis warned him to think twice. “I had people living here who told me, ‘Look, no good will come of this. The bad guys will use you’ – ‘bad guys’ meaning the policy-makers of this government. It was a complex month of going back and forth: ‘I’m coming … I’m not coming.’”

During his month of indecision, Gere says he discussed his dilemma with “Norman” writer-director Joseph Cedar on a daily basis. In the end, he showed up. (...)

“Obviously this occupation is destroying everyone,” he says. “There’s no defense of this occupation. Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal – and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process.” He pauses before adding, “Just to be clear about this: I denounce violence on all sides of this. And, of course, Israelis should feel secure. But Palestinians should not feel desperate.”

Gere’s rejection of “violent extremist factions on either side” is why he said he was “taken” with two groups he visited on the day of the premiere: Women Wage Peace, which rallies Israeli and Palestinian women together in political action; and YaLa, which trains youth for leadership, harnessing social media to learn communication, peacemaking and leadership skills and promoting ongoing dialogue.

“What I liked about both these groups that I met – it wasn’t that fatalistic, depressing energy … it was visionary, hopeful, filled with joy, love and commitment. And it wasn’t about one-off events expressing frustration. It was about, ‘We’re here until it’s over. We’re going to keep doing this.’”

Gere also met with representatives of the nongovernmental organization Breaking the Silence in New York before his trip, and said he planned to meet with them in Israel as well.

The demonization of the group by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others on the right appalled him, he said, as have the condemnations of J Street by the Trump administration’s new ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

“It is all so counter to what I know of Jewish culture,” Gere says. “Questioning authority makes you a kapo? To question authority makes you a traitor? If you question bad policies you are a self-hating Jew? That is insane. And, of course it’s the last resort of tyrants.”