Portman ‘very upset’ by Netanyahu win
Despite criticism of PM, the Israeli-American actress careful not to use her platform to ‘shit on Israel’
Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power has Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman in a tizzy, saying she was “very, very upset and disappointed” by the outcome of the March eletions.
“I’m very much against Netanyahu,” Portman told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday.
“I find his racist comments horrific,” said Portman of the prime minister’s controversial Election Day warning that Israel’s Arab residents were “voting in droves.”
Despite being critical of Netanyahu, the Israeli-born actress and director said that she was careful not to allow her celebrity to be used to “you know, shit on Israel.”
“I don’t want to do that,” she said.
Portman, who recently moved to France with her husband, admitted that she was nervous about being Jewish in Paris in light of the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe.
“But I’d feel nervous being a black man in this country. I’d feel nervous being a Muslim in many places,” she added.
When asked if she was shaken by the Hyper Cacher attack, she calmly answered “Listen, I’m from Israel.”
Earlier this year, Portman finished filming her directorial debut, “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” a Hebrew film adaptation of Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel.
