Homeland Security rips 'Hacks' star Hannah Einbinder after Emmys speech

Article content

Hannah Einbinder’s Emmys speech is not sitting well with America’s Department of Homeland Security.

While accepting her award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy, the Hacks star ended her speech with a fiery goodbye. “I just want to say, finally, go Birds, f— ICE, and free Palestine!” Einbinder said.

Backstage, Einbinder told reporters about her decision to speak out against the war between Israel and Hamas. “I thought it was important to talk about Palestine because it’s an issue that’s very dear to my heart. I have friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors right now in the north of Gaza to provide care for pregnant women and for school children to create schools in the refugee camps,” she said, according to Entertainment Weekly.

“I feel it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel because our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing, basically, institution that is really separate to this sort of ethnonationalist state.”

Einbinder is one of the more than 4,000 film workers who have signed onto a pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film organizations that they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

Though Einbinder didn’t further address the expletive she directed at the immigration raids being carried out by ICE across the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, lashed out at the actress.

“How ugly — such demonization is inspiring violence against our ICE law enforcement who are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them,” McLaughlin told TMZ. “As this woman fans the flames of hatred, our brave law enforcement will continue enforcing the rule of law and protecting Americans.”

According to CNN, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported nearly 200,000 people in the first seven months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump campaigned for re-election with mass deportations of illegals one of the key components of his messaging.

Einbinder’s stance on the war in Gaza was supported by her Hacks co-star Meg Stalter, who wore a T-shirt with the message “CEASE FIRE!” on it, while Javier Bardem wore a kaffiyeh on the red carpet. 

“It feels good to bring the attention to where it really needs to be, which is Gaza,” Bardem told USA Today.

Comedian Ricky Gervais — who famously warned celebrities during his past hosting stints at the Golden Globes to stay out of politics during their speeches — took aim at Einbinder in a now-deleted X post, Deadline reported.

“They’re still not listening,” Gervais wrote alongside  the full quote from his 2020 Globes monologue, in which he said: “If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a political platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.”

Gervais also retweeted another X user who shared another quote from his 2020 hosting stint in which he lambasted the room’s stars as hypocrites for working for Apple, a company he said “runs sweatshops in China.”

“You say you’re woke, but … if ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent,” Gervais said at the time.

But he left up several other barbs aimed at celebrities who might be motivated to speak out on political issues, no matter how well-intentioned their words.

One repost that is still visible on his X page features an image of Gervais and his quote, “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything.”

“They’re still not listening,” he captioned his post.

mdaniell@postmedia.com