Condolences to Vanessa Redgrave

Tweet I'm feeling sad for Vanessa Redgrave, who lost her daughter, Natasha Richardson, today in a skiing accident. Ms. Redgrave has the sense to be a socialist and, in the incident described below, the courage to stand up for Palestinian rights in a very public and forthright way. I'm sure it was the first time I and probably many other Americans ever heard the word "zionist." I remember being impressed with her steely determination to take on a group of people she believed were trespassing on the rights of others, even if I wasn't sure who all the parties were. As I later learned, she was very very correct in that and I think the dim memory of that speech may have had something to do with my willingness to delve into the issue of Palestine. I hope her courage will carry her through the experience that many Palestinians have been through, the tragic loss of a child.

Link to whole article here: http://www.super70s.com/super70s/Movies/1977/Redgrave_Zionism_Speech.asp
Portion of the article, including her Academy award speech:

With the Vietnam War over, one might have thought the early-Super70s tradition of offering up a political diatribe instead of an Academy Awards acceptance speech (see especially "Brando Refuses Oscar") had gone the way of Sensurround by March 29, 1978. But on that night, Vanessa Redgrave shocked nearly a billion worldwide television viewers watching the Academy Awards with the last great Academy Awards protest speech of 20th century.*

Redgrave was nominated for Julia, a film based on Linda Hellerman's memoir Pentimento. The film also starred Jane Fonda and Jason Robards and sports a bit role for the then unknown Meryl Streep. Fonda played Linda Hellerman while Redgrave played the part of Julia, Hellerman's strong-willed friend who teachers her the importance of sticking to her beliefs even while Europe descends into Nazi terror.

Why then, would she come under attack from Jewish groups? In addition to starring in Julia, Redgrave also funded a documentary entitled The Palestinian in which she backed a Palestinian homeland and, more controversially, danced with an Kalashnikov rifle.

Some of the more militant Jewish groups took this as a signal that she was an anti-Semite. A confrontation was inevitable and when the Academy Award nominations were announced with Redgrave among the nominees, the time and place was set. Around seventy-five Jewish Defense League (JDL) members and two hundred Palesinte Liberation Organization (PLO) followers and sympathizers were present for the media circus outside.

John Travolta, wearing a white silk scarf around his neck (similar to the one Redgrave wore in 1968 while portraying Isodora Duncan and ironically so, considering she was about to hang herself career-wise) riding high on the success of Saturday Night Fever, presented the Best Actress award and, as you already know, Redgrave won. Here is the memorable speech she gave that night:

"My dear colleagues, I thank you very much for this tribute to my work. I think that Jane Fonda and I have done the best work of our lives and I think this is in part due to our director, Fred Zinnemann. [Audience applauds.]

And I also think it's in part because we believed and we believe in what we were expressing - two out of millions who gave their lives and were to prepared to sacrifice everything in the fight against fascist and racist Nazi Germany.

And I salute you and I pay tribute to you and I think you should be very proud that in the last few weeks you've stood firm and you have refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums [gasps from the audience followed by a smattering of boos and clapping] whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression.

And I salute that record and I salute all of you for having stood firm and dealt a final blow against that period when Nixon and McCarthy launched a worldwide witch-hunt against those who tried to express in their lives and their work the truth that they believe in [some boos and hissing]. I salute you and I thank you and I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and fascism."

Redgrave and Travolta embraced and left the stage together to loud applause. Not present for the diatribe were the "Zionist hoodlums." They were just outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion burning an effigy of the Best Supporting Actress and shouting "Vanessa is a murderer!".