Javier Bardem is using his time on the F1 publicity trail to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Monday night, the Oscar winner showed up to the premiere of the film, which is about fast cars and co-stars Brad Pitt, wearing a keffiyeh pin that read “Palestine.” Throughout the evening, the 56-year-old, who has repeatedly spoken of the atrocities in Gaza, was photographed pointing proudly to the pin — a welcome gesture of activism in a sport that is notorious for its apoliticism, with the exception of Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton, who continues to speak out against racial injustice. In a red-carpet interview, Bardem told Variety that “we cannot forget about what is happening in the real world while we’re celebrating fiction.”
@varietymagazine Javier Bardem speaks out on Gaza: “Thousands of children are dying… It’s a genocide happening before our eyes. The American support has to stop.”
“In the real world, in Gaza, thousands of children are dying of starvation, and it’s a genocide taking place in front of our eyes in 4K,” he said. “American support has to stop financing bombs that are killing so many thousands of children, and the Western European countries have to start taking actions [sic] into cutting ties with Israel. Enough with the words, more actions.”
Earlier in the day, Bardem appeared on The View to promote the film, where he was seemingly cut off after he again called the atrocities in Gaza a “genocide.” After host Ana Navarro inquired about the actor’s activism, he said it was important for people to “draw a line in the sand” so that elected officials take them seriously, before pivoting to talk about Palestine explicitly. “I see your [pins], and, of course, they have to return those hostages, obviously,” he said, referring to the yellow-ribbon pins Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sara Haines wear every day in support of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. “But the situation in Gaza has come to a term now where I cannot express the pain that I, along with many millions of people there, suffer on a daily basis watching those horrible images of children being murdered and starving to death, being absolutely blocked aid of medicines, water, medical material, food … kids that have been amputated with our anesthesia.”
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“Experts on international law, experts on international amnesty, international human rights, and, some people that know what they’re talking about, Holocaust survivors are calling it a genocide,” he continued. “And if you ask me, I believe it’s a genocide. Why is that?” Because, he said, Israel has “impunity” in its actions, and because the United States is sending Israel weapons and Europe is “silent.” The View’s commercial-break music began piping through the studio as Whoopi Goldberg tried to cut in, but Bardem was undeterred. To applause from the audience, he said, “With this, I will finish, the most important thing is to not lose the humanity, and really denounce who we have to denounce.”
A source on The View told Decider that Bardem wasn’t played off — rather, that the segment had run out of time and they needed to cut to commercial before the next prerecorded segment. Either way, I’m glad Bardem is using his platform for good — as opposed to his castmate, who is using his platform to wear blue velvet suits.
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