‘The Hurricane’ screenwriter quits WGA over guild’s “abhorrent” lack of support for Israel after terror attacks

Longtime Writers Guild member Dan Gordon resigns over the union’s lack of public support for Israel.

“I resign my WGA-West membership and choose core financial status because I no longer wish to be a follower of those who hide behind the stinking veil of morally bankrupt wakeism and remain silent in the face of fanatical ideology. clearer in its genocidal intentions towards the Jewish people than that of Nazi Germany.” The hurricane the screenwriter said on Tuesday.

In a letter to WGA West leaders Patrick Cannon and Ellen Stutzman, the Israeli-American author and former IDF member, he added: “The failure of the guild leadership to even the mildest condemnation of the worst mass murder of a religious minority in the Middle East “East” since ISIS committed similar atrocities against the Yazidis is appalling. It damages me as a writer and contradicts every fiber of my being as a conscientious human being.”

Read Gordon’s full letter below.

A little more than two weeks after President Joe Biden called Hamas attacks on Israelis barbaric, Gordon’s resignation also follows the WGA membership’s ratification of a hotly contested new three-year TV/theater deal with the studios.

In the days following the terror siege that left more than 1,400 people dead and hundreds returned to Gaza as hostages, both the DGA and SAG-AFTRA issued statements condemning “the heinous acts of aggression against the people of Israel on October 7 ” condemned. . Companies such as Disney, Comcast and Skydance have donated millions to humanitarian aid, while top talent, executives and others have publicly expressed their support for Israel.

However, despite open letters and personal pleas from top showrunners, both the WGA West and WGA East have stated that they will not officially comment on the tragedy in Israel (WGA West has since issued a statement on its position). It came after a letter, as Deadline exclusively revealed, in which West Coast President Meredith Stiehm said, “Like the membership itself, the Board’s positions differed, and we felt that consensus was out of reach.” For these reasons, we have “We have decided not to make a public statement.”

The WGA East said on Monday that its own position was due to the fact that its membership “now consists of 40% journalists”. In doing so, we as leadership have agreed to distance ourselves from public statements that do not directly affect our guild, our industries or the labor movement. Such statements have hindered the work of journalists and divided us instead of uniting us.”

Amy Schumer, Chris Rock, Gal Godot, Shari Redstone, Taika Waititi, Jason Blum, WME’s Ari Greenburg, Gersh’s Leslie Siebert, Zoe Saldana, Judd Apatow, Tyler Perry and dozens of A-listers released a letter Monday saying that she praised Biden for his “unwavering moral conviction” in supporting the Jewish state and its right to defend itself. The large crowd also expressed “overwhelming concern” about the more than 200 hostages still being held by Hamas and its affiliates become

Here is Gordon’s letter:

Dear Patrick:

It is with great sadness that I hereby end my membership in the WGAw and opt for core financial status. Please let me know the amount of the contribution due and the due date.

I have been a member of the Writers Guild of America West for 56 years. Lest anyone think I’m no longer an active writer, four feature films will premiere this year, including “Irena’s Vow,” the story of a twenty-year-old Polish Catholic girl who hid twelve Jews in the basement of the house. from a German major he knows. almost a year during World War II. Her selfless courage and moral clarity saved them all.

On October 7, Jewish men, women and children from nine months to ninety years old were slaughtered, raped, beheaded and burned alive while hiding, just like Anna. [sic] Frank, of ISIS-like terrorists who subscribe to a fanatical ideology whose genocidal intentions towards the Jewish people are no less clear than those of Nazi Germany. This is from the Hamas treaty: “The Day of Judgment will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, when the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees and the rocks and trees will call out: ‘O Muslim, oh Servant of .’ Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.

What is unclear about this ideology?

The failure of the Guild leadership to even condemn the worst massacre of a religious minority in the Middle East since ISIS committed similar atrocities against the Yazidis is appalling. It damages me as a writer and contradicts every fiber of my being as a conscientious person.

I am canceling my membership, not because I want to work on non-union projects or cross a picket line, but because I no longer want to be a follower of those who hide behind the stinking veil of morally bankrupt wakeism and remain silent in the face of unadulterated evil.

Then Gordon