Javier Bardem speaks about Gaza at the San Sebastian Film Festival

Palestinian flags line the red carpet at the San Sebastian Film Festival. As the city celebrates Spain's most prestigious film festival, demonstrators have taken to the streets to protest the over 40,000 men, women and children killed in Gaza since the war with Israel began, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Among those taking a pro-Gaza stance during the film event on the Spanish coast was Spanish national hero Javier Bardem, who received the festival's Donostia Prize.

At the press conference, he used the opportunity to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and to condemn the actions of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu, which continued its air strikes on Gaza even after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which over 1,200 Israelis were murdered.

“I welcome [the award] with great joy, but I am not in the mood to celebrate,” said a translation of Bardem's statement in the Spanish press. “What happened in Gaza is unacceptable and dehumanizing.”

Bardem said he believes the Israeli government is “the most radical government” the country has ever seen and that it has committed war crimes in Gaza. “The cruel and reprehensible attacks carried out by Hamas in October do not justify the massive global punishment suffered by the Palestinian population,” he continued. “I believe that the impunity with which the Israeli government enjoys its actions in Gaza and the West Bank must change,” he added, imploring the US and Britain in particular to reconsider their “unconditional support” for Benjamin Netanyahu.