Natalie Portman Hoped To Blame Genesis Prize Snub On ‘Scheduling’ Snafu
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Actress Natalie Portman originally told the Genesis Prize that she was canceling her participation in the award ceremony in Jerusalem over Israel’s actions in quelling Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.
Hadashot in a report Monday night quoted an email from Portman’s representatives dated April 2.
“We have followed the recent news from Gaza with growing worry, and we are concerned that it is not appropriate to hold a ceremony given the government’s actions and the latest escalation,” the email said.
Genesis, according to Hadashot, rejected her reasoning.
“Canceling the award ceremony … would be a slap in the face of the people of Israel,” it said.
Portman’s decision to eschew the prize ceremony scheduled for June was announced on Thursday night by the Genesis Prize.
The actress later blamed her decision on her reluctance to appear with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid unspecified Israeli “atrocities.”
On Tuesday, the Jewish Insider cited “multiple sources” in reporting that Portman’s representatives had asked the Genesis Prize to cite a scheduling conflict as the reason she could not attend the ceremony.
The Jewish Insider also cited an unnamed source as saying that Genesis tried to accommodate her concerns not to appear to be endorsing Netanyahu, but she insisted that the premier not be invited to the event.
That demand was “a bridge to far,” the site quoted a source as saying.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
