Jackie Mason: Blacklist anti-Israel celebs

Jews in the US entertainment industry should use their influence to blacklist celebrities who support Israel boycotts, legendary Jewish comedian Jackie Mason said in a radio interview broadcast Sunday.

“If they are determined to persecute Israel, why can’t we persecute them? Why can’t we put them out of business? Why should we let them get away with it?” asked Mason on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” which runs in New York and Philadelphia.

He argued: “Once they know that this is a price they will have to pay for it, I guarantee you won’t hear any more about boycotting Israel.”

If it were not for the Jews who created the film industry, these Israel critics would not have a job, Mason argued, according to American media outlets.

“These people who profited all their lives from Jewish people, Jewish directors, Jewish producers. Jews created the industry,” he said. “If not for the Jews who created the industry in Hollywood, all these people would never have a job and would never be working. So the Jews supported them all their lives. And the Jews made it possible for them to make a living.”

Furthermore, Mason told listeners, rather than boycott, celebrities should be praising it.

“If they had any decency, they would want to go out of their way to help Jewish people and to save Jewish people because the State of Israel represents the people who made it possible for them to ever become a celebrity in the first place. If not for them, you would be starving to death today.”

Mason also had harsh words for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate and delegitimize Israel internationally. One common tactic is putting pressure on celebrities who visit, or plan to visit, the Jewish state.

“These people want to boycott a beleaguered country that is being persecuted every day by Palestinians,” he said. “And they convinced themselves that the Palestinians are the victims when the Jews are helping the Palestinians every day. A Palestinian in Israel can make a comfortable living, can be a citizen, can even be in the government, and we treat them like kings.”

Artists who have succumbed to BDS pressure and canceled appearances in recent years have included Lauryn Hill and Elvis Costello.

Regarding this phenomenon, Mason asked listeners: “How they can sympathize with murderers instead of people trying to bring peace on earth, to bring peace even to their own enemies, and even help them make a living? This is the most disgusting thing I ever heard of in my life.”