Sticking your head over the parapet and criticizing Israel can be career suicide for an actor. Earlier this month, we learned that Paramount is maintaining a blacklist of actors with pro-Palestine opinions and who support a cultural boycott of Israel. And, after this post, it’s safe to say that Guy Pearce may have made the list.
Responding to a video on Instagram of Israeli soldiers taking pictures on their phones of a dying Palestinian child, Pearce took to X to say:
I’ve never been so disgusted by a group of people in my life as I am by Israelis. Everyday I witness their utter disregard & disdain for Palestinian life. It is shameful & sets humanity further backwards with every vile act like this.https://t.co/GderHqiV9N
— Guy Pearce (@TheGuyPearce) November 21, 2025
“I’ve never been so disgusted by a group of people in my life as I am by Israelis. Everyday I witness their utter disregard & disdain for Palestinian life. It is shameful & sets humanity further backwards with every vile act like this.”
The video Pearce is referring to is a difficult watch. Posted by Al Jazeera on Instagram, it shows the last moments of 15-year-old Palestinian boy Jad Jadallah, who was apparently shot in the back by IDF troops. In the video, Jadallah is injured but alive, bleeding out as Israeli soldiers surround him.
No attempt is made to give him medical assistance, and reports indicate the Israeli troops blocked paramedics from saving his life. If that’s the case, this is a war crime. International humanitarian law is clear that troops deliberately obstructing medical teams and denying them access to the wounded is a war crime, can contribute towards crimes against humanity, and can give rise to criminal responsibility.
Jadallah apparently spent 40 minutes bleeding out in the dirt, with his last moments on Earth met with vague boredom by the troops surrounding him. One of them even leans over his body to snap a picture with his phone, presumably some kind of sick keepsake?
The cherry on top is that after he died, the IDF troops confiscated his corpse and are refusing to release it to his grieving mother.
Will this harm his career?
It’s safe to say Pearce’s response to this has split opinion. Many are praising him:
“Jesus. The brutality and lack of humanity are still viscerally traumatising even after seeing so many of these videos. I feel so helpless do anything. Thank you for using your position to help bring attention to it.”
Others seem smug that he’s wilfully harming his acting career:
He doesn’t need them he’s successful enough.
— Allie (@teach313al) November 21, 2025
That said, Pearce has been a vocal supporter of Palestine for some time, and his career seems to be doing fine. Even so, perhaps don’t expect to get a job on the Paramount lot anytime soon.
