An estimated 75 members of the Writers Guild of America met Friday afternoon for a 90-minute Zoom meeting that served as an outlet for their collective disappointment about their union’s silence after Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Showrunners including Hank Steinberg (Without a Trace), Howard Gordon (Homeland), Joel Fields (The Americans) and Marc Guggenheim (Legends of Tomorrow) attended the virtual gathering in which attendees expressed confusion about why the WGA, fresh off a nearly 150-day strike, has not joined other guilds including SAG-AFTRA and the DGA in condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
“It feels very much as if we all marched in solidarity for five months having our guild’s back and here they are not having ours,” Guggenheim told The Hollywood Reporter after the meeting.
Much of Friday’s meeting saw writers looking for answers about the WGA’s silence as it pertains to the conflict with hopes that the dialogue would serve as the beginning rather than an end of a conversation on the issue that many hoped would eventually include guild leadership. (Multiple members of the WGA’s board either declined to comment when contacted by THR or did not respond to requests for comment.)
Why hasn’t the WGA weighed in on the matter after the 11,500-strong union previously issued statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and others like #MeToo? Multiple sources say the WGA’s board remains divided on how to respond, worried that some of its activist members will oppose any statement supporting the country. (The WGA declined to comment.)
Within the Western branch, the decision on whether to issue a statement is driven by the WGA’s board of directors, chaired by president Meredith Stiehm, according to sources. A source close to the board said the body could not come to a consensus on appropriate language, thwarting any response.
“There are some really progressive guild staff saying we should not be commenting on events like this — that no union should — period. Is it making members feel better? Yes, but are we doing it at the expense of making other members feel worse? Yes,” says the source with knowledge of the guild’s discussions. “This board does give a shit; there are some really progressive folks and a lot of Jewish members are on the board. What the board wants to do is put out a responsible statement but they’re taking the care and consideration to make sure they are approaching this as respectfully as can be rather than rushing to put something out. … They don’t want to harm [Jewish or Palestinian] members more than those members have already experienced. This is something that is weighing very heavily on all of them.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the U.S., issued its own statement Friday condemning the WGA’s silence. “We applaud Joel Fields, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jerry Seinfeld, Matt Weiner, Jenji Kohan and well over 200 other WGA members who have condemned the silence of the Guild’s leaders when it comes to the murder, rape and kidnapping of Jews,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, director of global social action for the center. “We echo the message sent by WGA members on Oct. 15: ‘… the Writers Guild of America has always led by example. When employers sought to exploit our work, the Guild bravely spoke up. When the BLM movement took flight, the Guild rightfully spoke up. When the #MeToo reckoning came and Hollywood needed to change, again the Guild spoke up. But when terrorists invaded Israel to murder, rape, and kidnap Jews … the Guild stayed silent.’”
Amid polarizing sentiment on social media, advocates for Israel have been rallying Hollywood to take a stand, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt, who called on notable entertainment figures to speak publicly. “In light of how distorting social media algorithms can present the world, it’s even more important for these voices to cut through,” he wrote.
Those calls to speak publicly have made the WGA’s position more conspicuous in some industry circles. “Historically the guild has always been more middle of the road as it pertains to labor and most unions don’t make statements regarding political situations — even situations like this in general unless they have direct involvement in the situation,” says the source with knowledge of the inner-workings of the WGA who is sympathetic to those who oppose any statement. “There has been a lot of backlash to the statements that the DGA and SAG-AFTRA put out and there are members of those unions saying, ‘Fuck you for speaking on my behalf.’ Yes, what happened in Israel is horrendous but to speak out on this atrocity without speaking out on the previous atrocities in Israel committed on Palestinians in Gaza is detrimental.”
The WGA now finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place given its history of statements responding to everything between BLM and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. One source with former ties to WGA leadership said the problem now is the union established a track record of responding to hot-button issues and its silence now is leaving Jewish members to question, “Why not us?”
That was the question for writers on Friday’s Zoom meeting. “It’s mystifying,” said one of the writers who attended Friday’s session. “One of the things a lot of people on the Zoom wanted was some explication. There was some discussion about if the guild were to issue a statement tomorrow, would it mean anything or would it look like it was forced? Does it make a difference if someone does the right thing if they have to be forced or shamed into it? I don’t know the answer.”
In the meantime, an anonymous Google doc was shared on social media encouraging members of the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America to “reject pressure campaigns to support the assault in Gaza.”
Katie Kilkenny contributed to this report.
