Popular Israeli-American screenwriter Dan Gordon announced his decision to become a Financial Core (Fi-Core) non-member of the Writers Guild of America West after 56 years on Tuesday, calling out the union for staying silent on Hamas’ terror against Israel.
“I am resigning my membership in the WGA West and electing financial core status because I no longer wish to be a fellow traveler with those who hide behind the fetid veil of a morally bankrupt wokeism and stand silent in the face of a fanatical ideology no less explicit in its genocidal intent toward the Jewish people than that of Nazi Germany,” he said in a letter to WGA West’s membership administrator Patrick Cannon and assistant executive director Ellen Stutzman.
In the letter, Gordon slammed the union’s failure to show support for Israel as “appalling” and “repugnant,” adding an excerpt from the Hamas covenant that calls for murdering Jews.
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Dan Gordon attends IRENA’S VOW Opening Night On Broadway Arrivals and After Party at Walter Kerr Theatre and TAO 42 E. 58th St. on March 29, 2009, in New York. (BEN GABBE/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
“What about that ideology is unclear?” he asked.
“The failure of the Guild’s leadership to issue even the mildest condemnation of the worst massacre of a religious minority in the Middle East since ISIS carried out similar atrocities against the Yezidis is appalling. It is corrosive to me as a writer and repugnant to every fiber of my being as a person of conscience,” he continued.
The same day, WGA West issued a statement to its members addressing its silence on the conflict that began when Hamas terrorists launched attacks on residential areas in Israel on Oct. 7.
According to Variety, nearly 400 writers signed an open letter condemning the attacks as well as the union’s silence on the issue. Three hundred members of another group penned a separate letter urging unions to not weigh in.
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The Writers Guild of America West headquarters is viewed on September 25, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
WGA West’s leadership, however, explained that they felt offering a statement would extend beyond their scope.
“In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, we did not issue a public statement, not because we were not horrified by the atrocities, but because it felt outside the purview of a U.S. labor union representing writers to comment on it. This was and is a difficult balance to strike,” the statement said.
“We have, as a Guild, made statements on other occasions, which could be characterized as beyond our scope and want to offer some transparency here about our thinking. Those instances fell mainly under the umbrella of defending social justice in the U.S. or freedom of expression, and where possible, were connected back to writers’ working lives. But the list of national and international tragedies we have not commented on is large.”
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The guild noted that it did not weigh in on the Russia-Ukraine conflict when it began in 2022, among other international affairs, noting, “It can be an imprecise science for a labor union to pick and choose where it weighs in on both domestic and world affairs.”
“The Hurricane” and “Wyatt Earp” screenwriter formerly served in the IDF, according to Deadline’s report.
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