Watchdog Group Calls on Talent Agency to Drop Former ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star for Promoting Antisemitic Blood Libels
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Jesse Williams at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival World Premiere for “FOLLOWING HARRY” held at the SVA Theater in New York, NY, USA. Photo: LJ Fotos/AdMedia/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The watchdog group StopAntisemitism is calling on a global talent agency to drop actor and former “Grey’s Anatomy” star Jesse Williams as its client for sharing antisemitic content, including blood libels and anti-Israel conspiracy theories, on social media.
The American actor recently uploaded a series of posts on his Instagram Stories that additionally support antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and misinformation about Israel’s military actions during its ongoing war against Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip. One post featured a world map that pinpointed Israel and claimed that “your freedom of speech is being controlled” by the Jewish state.
In another post on his Instagram Story, Williams falsely alleged that in Gaza, Israel “forced a Palestinian captive to have sex with a dog, is siccing attack dogs on elderly woman,” and shot a six-year-old child “355 times.”
One of his accusations appeared to stem from the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera reporting on footage of what it claimed was an Israeli military dog mauling an elderly Palestinian woman in her home in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that the dog was actually abducted by the terrorist group Hamas, which used the canine to film an “attack” as anti-Israel propaganda before killing the animal and booby-trapping its body with explosives in the event that Israeli soldiers tried to retrieve their canine comrade.
Williams also reposted a message that falsely claimed Zionists “consider Palestinian deaths a good thing, creating favorable demographic shifts in the direction of a Jewish minority in Palestine.” The post further claimed that “mass Palestinian death is a major Zionist ‘war aim.'”
A fourth Instagram post uploaded by the actor featured a quote attributed to Cairo-based comedian Bassem Youssef, who said recently on the NewsNation show “Cuomo,” hosted by Chris Cuomo, that, “We will only be safe if Israel is safe, and Israel will be safe if all of us are dead.”
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Jewish groups and scholars of antisemitism have argued that attributing to Jews a desire to harm Palestinians is a modern iteration of the medieval antisemitic blood libel, which falsely claims that Jews use the blood of non-Jewish children in their religious rituals.
Williams is represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which is the world’s leading entertainment, sports, and media agency, according to its website. CAA did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment regarding Williams’ social media posts.
Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told The Algemeiner on Tuesday that her organization “calls on CAA to immediately break ties with antisemite Jesse Williams.”
“His propagating such horrifying antisemitic tropes is unforgivable,” Rez added.
