“I had to speak up” – these are the words of Israeli actress, Gal Gadot, who this week received a star in her honour on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“I’m just a girl from a town in Israel,” the actress said during the ceremony. “This star will remind me that with hard work and passion and some faith, anything is possible.”

She added, “To all the young women out there, the young people, especially young girls watching, if a girl from Rosh Ha’ayin can get a star at the Hollywood Boulevard, anything is possible.”

Her achievements on the big screen and inspiration to young women means very little to the pro-Palestinian protesters, simply because she is Jewish and Israeli. The ceremony was delayed because of a pro-Palestinian protest trying to disrupt the ceremony. It was met by a pro-Israel counterprotest, not protests “by both sides” as described by much of the media. There was only one side calling for genocide.

Additionally, a social media post showing an image of a destroyed pavement star was not that of Gal Gadot’s – it was photoshopped and unrelated – but the fact that it went viral and cheered by anti-Israel social media users across the globe says everything about the Jew-hatred Gal Gadot faces. And not Gal Gadot only – to the antisemite she typifies every Jewish and Israeli person in the world.

Speaking to entertainment magazine Variety before the ceremony, Gadot explained that while she previously stayed away from politics, she felt compelled to speak up following Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023. “When people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent. I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how the media is not fair many times. So I had to speak up.”

She reiterated that her investment in these issues is deeply personal. “I’m not a hater. I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz. And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.”

“I am all about humanity,” she emphasizes, “and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages.” Even after fielding occasional criticism for her support for Israel, she insists that “when your compass is clear, your conscience is clean. I know what I’m advocating for, and I know what I wish for the world.”

“I am praying for better days for all,” she continues. “I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”

Gadot, who is Israeli, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel on social media, as well as in a passionate speech she delivered earlier in March when she was honoured at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual summit in New York City. “Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews,” she said.

Gadot is correct. It is unacceptable for an actress to receive so much hate for speaking out for the hostages. But the hatred is deeper than simply a response to her support for Israel.  Gal Gadot is being targeted simply for her Israeli identity. It is antisemitism.

To her credit, the actress who played Wonder Woman is fighting the antisemites and will win. Why? Because in her words, “I know what I am advocating for.”

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