Actress Jamie Lee Curtis compared the recent destruction by the wildfires in California to that of the Gaza Strip, drawing criticism.
“The entire City of Angels is on fire—everywhere, everywhere,” she said last week. “The entire Pacific Palisades looks like, unfortunately, Gaza or one of these war-torn countries where terrible things have happened.”
Joel Petlin, superintendent of the Kiryas Joel School District, wrote that “many Palestinian accounts are celebrating the wildfires in Los Angeles. This Hollywood celebrity should probably rethink her comparison.”
Curtis, whose father is the late Jewish actor Tony Curtis, has sided publicly with Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
She and more than 700 others from the entertainment industry signed an open letter in support of the Jewish state following the infiltration and assault that left 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage into Gaza. “This is terrorism. This is evil. There is no justification or rationalization for Hamas’s actions,” the letter stated.
“These are barbaric acts of terrorism that must be called out by everyone. They are a terrorist organization whose leaders call for the murder of Jews everywhere,” it added.
In recent days, an adviser to the United Nations and Code Pink was criticized for comparing California wildfires and Gaza.
Curtis has been using her social-media accounts to raise money for those affected by the California fires, as well as to call attention to the efforts of firefighters and others fighting the blazes and aiding victims.
