Joel Fields, the showrunner of “The Americans,” criticized the Writers Guild of America on Wednesday for not issuing a statement condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel.
“The Writers Guild has completely failed us,” Fields said. “For an organization that is constantly making statements to ensure it is on the right side of history, unfortunately it has made its statements through its silence.”
Fields spoke on a panel at Variety’s Hollywood & Antisemitism Summit, presented by the Margaret & Daniel Loeb Foundation and Shine A Light.
His comments followed an open letter on Sunday that argued that the WGA’s silence on the issue showed it had “lost perspective.” Fields was among the signatories, as was “The Americans” creator Joe Weisberg, along with Jerry Seinfeld, Eli Roth, Susannah Grant, Steven Levitan, Scott Frank, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Jenji Kohan and many others.
SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America each issued statements last week condemning the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 people.
The WGA has not commented on why it has not issued a statement on the attacks. Some have theorized that the guild does not want to anger members whose sympathies are more aligned with the Palestinians. Others have claimed that the guild is simply trying to avoid a sensitive issue.
Ilana Wernick, writer and producer of “Mom,” “Maggie” and “Modern Family,” argued that the failure to issue a statement was due to ideological hostility.
“The WGA clearly has a Jew-hatred problem and we need to say it out loud,” Wernick said.
She went on to say that she was speaking on behalf of people who had been “hurt by the truly vile ideology of wokism.”
“It is an ideology based on perception and feelings. It’s not based on facts. It’s not based on reality,” she said. “This idea that the person or group perceived as oppressed is always right and the person or group perceived as the oppressor is always wrong is what led us to this.”
“We have all seen in recent years how people we know – good people, and I’m not just talking about Jews – good people have been turned into villains and lost their livelihoods. And so it no longer seems like such a big step that villains have been transformed into heroes. That’s what these colleges do.”
Fields argued that Hollywood began as a refuge for Jews and had evolved into a “safe place.”
“I don’t think we saw any anti-Semitism until about a week and a half ago,” Fields said.
Several studios issued either public statements or internal memos condemning the attacks. Hollywood stars also made similar statements or made donations after the attacks.