About a thousand demonstrators gathered in Hollywood on Sunday ahead of the Oscars to demand an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Their presence frustrated Oscars organizers and traffic controllers. Shortly before the party began at 4 p.m., dozens of black trucks carrying attendees pulled up on Highland Avenue.
“Go! Go! Go!” one organizer shouted as he frantically waved at cars to move through the intersection at Sunset Boulevard and Highland near the Dolby Theater, where the concert was scheduled to begin. Some Oscars-goers abandoned their cars and walked toward the venue. By the time the party started, police had cleared the access roads.
Three hours earlier, protesters began gathering in their hundreds at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Ivar Street, about a mile east of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard.
An Israel supporter stands on the sidewalk as a protester shares his views Sunday in Hollywood.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
After that, the demonstrators headed to Sunset Street, waving Palestinian flags, and occupied the eastern side of the street.
“Let's shut it down!” The demonstrators chanted as they gathered at sunset. The crowd began moving west down the street, led by a white truck with six people at the top, chanting into a microphone and loudspeaker.
About 40 police officers in riot gear stood vigil at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas Boulevard, one block west of the approaching crowd.
“Free Palestine!” The crowd chanted to the beat of drums — and waved posters showing movie slate painted in black, white, green and red, the colors of the Palestinian flag — with a message directed at the Oscars crowd: “While you watch, the bombs are falling.”
Protesters also gathered earlier around the Hollywood Boulevard exit off Highway 101 and at the intersection of Sunset and Vine streets. Others gathered at La Brea and Franklin streets, near the Dolby Theater, waving signs reading “Ceasefire Now.”
Security measures were tightened inside and around the theater. Los Angeles Police officers increased patrols in the area in anticipation of protests, and ticket holders for the concert and after-ceremony events were asked to pass through three checkpoints and a number of steel barriers before approaching the red carpet.
Miguel Camnitzer, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in Los Angeles, said he recently joined the pro-Palestinian cause. The 44-year-old grandson of Jews who fled Germany during the Holocaust said he could not stand by while Palestinians were killed.
“I cannot sit at home today watching an awards ceremony when genocide is occurring in the name of my people, and previous genocide of my people has occurred,” he said. “I was raised to believe that preventing this from anyone else is a collective responsibility.”
For Sarah Jacobs, a mentor to young writers, protesting the war between Israel and Hamas is more about getting food, water and other necessities to her trainees, some of whom are based in Rafah in southern Gaza.
“They're holding on for dear life,” Jacobs, 72, said. “Two in Rafah, one in a tent with his family and the other in a room with about 50 people.” One of her students needed diapers for his 2-month-old, but “what they need more than anything else is freedom,” she said.
Several members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the sunset demonstration, showing their support for the Palestinians and the ceasefire, holding a large SAG-AFTRA poster in front of the crowd.
She added that one of the protesters was a 35-year-old actress, and her aunt and uncle live in a church in Gaza. She asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from her family in Gaza and from herself in the entertainment industry.
“Hollywood is complicit,” she said as she headed west toward the Dolby Theater with the audience. “There is this racist ideology spreading internally [SAG]”And he will not be punished.”
She said Palestinian Americans who expressed support for Gaza faced unfair retaliation in the entertainment industry, citing the case of a friend, a fellow actor, who was fired by their manager after posting pro-Palestinian messages on social media.
“We feel the effects of speaking out against genocide and for humanity,” she said. She urged the union to make a statement supporting the ceasefire.
Marches and rallies witnessed around the world in recent months called for an end to the war.
Israel launched its air strikes and ground invasion of Gaza after a Hamas militant attack on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostage. Since then, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 30,000, most of them women and children, according to the World Health Organization.
International mediators have been working in vain for weeks to reach an agreement to stop the fighting before the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Sunday. Officials hoped the agreement would allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who are at risk of starvation.
Officials have been warning for months that the Israeli blockade and military attacks are pushing the Palestinian territories into famine. At least 20 people died of malnutrition and dehydration at Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals in the north, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled territory.
Recent airdrops of aid by the United States and other countries are providing far fewer supplies than those delivered by trucks, which have become scarce and sometimes dangerous. UNRWA, the largest UN agency in Gaza, says Israeli authorities have not allowed it to deliver supplies to the north since January 23. The World Food Organization, which halted deliveries of supplies over safety concerns, said the army last week forced its first convoy to surrender. To the north within two weeks to return.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
