The Israeli President said, "I totally reject her claims. I think she's never been in Gaza."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has slammed Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie after her recent remarks on the Israel-Hamas War. Mr Herzog was in an interview with Piers Morgan and stated that he witnessed personally what happened on the first day of the attacks and how it was the "worst atrocity as a nation." Ms Jolie had recently posted about her anti-Israel stance on her social media accounts. While referring to her experience working with the United Nations to help refugees, Ms Jolie stated that her "focus is on the people displaced by violence in any context."
She added, "What happened in Israel is an act of terror. But that cannot justify the innocent lives lost in bombing a civilian population in Gaza that has nowhere to go, no access to food or water, no possibility of evacuation, and not even the basic human right to cross a border to seek refuge." She wrote that Gaza was "fast becoming a mass grave" as a result of Israel's airstrikes and that "the world watches" as "millions of Palestinian civilians - children, women, and families - are being collectively punished" in a later post that included a photo that appeared to show a recent Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip.
Reacting to the same, Mr Herzog in the interview said that Ms Jolie has not visited Gaza and she is not offering Israelis any ability to defend themselves by her remarks. "I totally reject her claims. I think she's never been in Gaza.... to visit and see the facts on the ground. In Gaza now there is war, but there is no humanitarian crisis that does not enable them to survive," he said.
The Israeli President added, "Angelina Jolie does not offer the Israeli people any ability to defend themselves by saying what she's saying. And Gaza is a jail not because of Israel. Israel pulled out of Gaza. Gaza is an Iranian base filled with terror. Perhaps the outcome of this war will enable the Gazan people who deserve a decent good life to enjoy it under a different regime that will enable movement towards peace. You'll tell me, of course, the civilians are not to blame. Fine, if the civilians are not to blame, then please enable Israel to uproot these terrorists."
The President also recollected the morning of the October 7 attack by Hamas. He stated that there were sirens all across and they ran to shelters. "It was 6:30 a.m. The silence in the entire neighbourhood was torn to pieces by immense sirens and then booms. We immediately realized we were under a huge missile attack... and the shock was huge. We ran to the shelters. Then we started getting the endless news about atrocities throughout our southern border, about people being locked in shelters and burned and under attack. And all hell broke loose. We've gone through the worst atrocity as a nation since the establishment of the state of Israel. The highest amount of Jews killed since the Holocaust, about eight or nine times, in terms of 9/11, of our national proportion of casualties," he told Piers Morgan.
Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie's father, Jon Voight, also stated that he was "disappointed" by his daughter's remarks. He said in a video posted on X, "I am very disappointed that my daughter, like so many, has no understanding of God's honour, God's truths. This is about destroying the history of God's land - the Holy Land - the land of the Jews. This is justice for God's children of the holy land." He continued, "The Israeli army must protect thy soil, thy people. This is war. It's not going to be what the left thinks, it can't be civil now."