Posted on 02/22/2017 4:38:24 PM PST by SJackson
None of the Oscar nominees used the 10-day trip, valued at $55,000, which was part of the 2016 Oscar gift bag.
One of the best perks of being a celebrity -- besides the millions of dollars -- is the glitz and glamour of the Oscar gift bag.
However it appears that one item in the 2016 Oscar gift bag was not so desirable: a 10-day, first-class trip to Israel. None of the 2016 Oscar nominees took up the offer to visit Israel this year.
The trip, valued at $55,000, was immediately condemned by BDS activists and pro-Palestinian groups as "Zionist propaganda." Prominent activists said that the celebrity visits would be used by the Israeli government to distract from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A #skipthetrip Twitter campaign was launched by anti-Israel activists in order to convince the celebrities not to use their travel vouchers. Advertisements were also published in the Los Angeles Times.
AFP quoted Yousef Munayyer of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which spearheaded the campaign along with the US-based Jewish Voice for Peace, as saying, "This is a success -- I am very glad there's no evidence that people went. I think it is clear the objective of using the actors to whitewash Israel has failed."
While none of the actors went to Israel themselves, the agency that created the luxury package has said that Jennifer Lawrence gifted the voucher to her parents.
Luxury trips are not uncommon in the swag bag. A 15-day walking tour of Japan was also given to the 2016 Oscar nominees.
Ditto here.
Does the donor get to deduct the value even if it’s not used?
*sigh*
I don’t think I’ll ever go to Israel, or even to Iowa. My family got all whiny when I visited my mother in Florida for three days.
Gee perhaps someone should tell that idiot who appeared on Tucker’s show last night what TRUE Nazism looks like..THIS is what TRUE Nazism looks like..this is what is happening all over the country..from college campuses banning Israeli made products to this..I would LOVE to visit Israel again..went 3 times in my life..once when I was 2 years old but I dont remember it obviously was so young, once when I was 14 years old, and again a few years ago for my sisters wedding..other than being on a 15 hour flight which can be of course annoying visiting Israel is an absolute DREAM
Liberal Jews are LIBERALS first..and Jewish LAST..if Israel were wiped off the planet tomorrow they would not shed a tear..now if abortions were banned tomorrow they would slit their wrists in disgust
So tell us again about how "anti-Semitic" Trump is???
Ironic isn’t it? Most of Hollywood Producers, Directors, Studio owners are Jewish.
Unused by the same jugheads calling PRESIDENT Trump an anti-Semite. I don’t get it. Nazis calling somebody else a Nazi.
But TRUMP is the anti-Semite!
I maybe small sweetest Onyx, But I am NOT okay with their anti-Israel crap.
I truly do not understand it, particularly in light of the rabid Antisemitism of most Hollywood people and the horrible way the democratic politician treat them as a people and as a Nation.
If I were Jewish, I'd be jumping up and down on the throat of any damned democrat that approached me.
Can someone enlighten me?
Being jewish in hollywood is just a sideline and for looks only, being liberal and fascist is first and foremost always.
Whomever provided those gifts...
I would be proud and honored for the opportunity to participate in a raffle for one of those unused trips...
Why should anti-American perverts have the only opportunity?
I’LL TAKE IT!
Never went on my Birthright trip. In fact, I know hundreds if not thousands of Jews here in the US who never did either. Give the unclaimed gift to them!
Many Jews believe the state of Israel without Mashiach doing the gathering back to the land is completely illegitimate. Also, many believe the entire world is Israel. These Jews can keep a higher level of kashrut than anyone imagines.
Because someone refuses a free high value trip doesn’t say they are “anti-Israel” or not a Jew. They may not want something this high profile or agree to the terms. Think Joseph.
F them all. Every one of them. Who didn’t use the trip to the Holy Land because they didn’t want their likeness to be used against the Palestinians. I hate them all. And I am very sorry that people like Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, Vince Vaughn, or Liev Schreiber didn’t use them.
Sad. Dennis Prager was talking about this a couple days ago. They are suicidal.
I doubt anyone’s likeness is used for publicity. I think it’s more a good will effort. But if it aggravates Arabs, obviously that’s more than many celebrities can take.
I doubt many of the nominees were Jewish. I believe it’s for best director, actor and actress nominees. Maybe supporting too, but not more widespread. I doubt anyone else cares. It is a shame they don’t donate the trip somewhere.
Damn, I would chew off my left arm to go back to Israel! I love the climate, the Med, Tel Aviv where you play and J-rue where you pray. The Dead Sea and history of Biblical proportions with people living right in the middle of buildings thousands of years old, or Roman columns in fields, or Herrod’s summer palace. Two years there and my wife would move back in a heart beat.
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