WGA comments on Israeli, Palestinian deaths and Gaza crisis

The entrance to the Writers Guild of America West building — a large, round building with lots of windows

Oct. 24, 2023 Updated 3:21 PM PT

The western branch of the Writers Guild of America released an internal statement to members Tuesday mourning the recent loss of Israeli and Palestinian life.

WGA West leaders began their message by explaining why the guild did not previously comment when Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, carrying out an attack that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Israelis, most of them them civilians, according to the Israeli government.

More than 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors and around 1,100 women, have been killed in Israeli-retaliatory strikes, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said Monday.

“The Guild’s decision not to issue a statement on the events of October 7th has caused pain within our membership that we did not intend,” the WGA West statement read.

“We believe it is important to both explain our process and to attempt to rectify the situation, as well as to unequivocally state that antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in this Guild.”

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm, Vice President Michele Mulroney and Secretary-Treasurer Betsy Thomas said in their joint remarks that they declined to issue a public statement not because they “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.”

The WGA has drawn criticism from various parties, including its own guild members and the Screenwriters Guild of Israel, for not publicly commenting on the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians in contrast to SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America.

On Oct. 13, more than 300 writers signed an open letter criticizing the WGA for not condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Among the most prominent signatories were Eric Roth, Matthew Weiner, Jenji Kohan and Amy Sherman-Palladino.

At least one person, showrunner Marc Guggenheim, vowed to withhold his WGA membership dues because of the guild’s silence; while another, screenwriter and former Israeli soldier Dan Gordon, resigned his union membership.

Other entertainment figures have spoken out about the suffering of Palestinians blockaded under fire in Gaza. On Oct. 17, more than 2,000 people signed an open letter published by the group Artists for Palestine UK and calling Israel’s actions “war crimes.” Actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan and Charles Dance were among those signatories.

“All of us in Guild leadership are horrified by the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th,” the memo to WGA members read Thursday.

“The murder of so many innocent people in Israel is an abomination. We deeply mourn the deaths of innocent Palestinians ensnared in the violence in Gaza. We feel for all our members who have been affected, directly and indirectly. We hope that wisdom prevails in the region — and for the safety of all innocent people caught in the escalating violence.”

Here is the WGA West’s full statement to members:

The Guild’s decision not to issue a statement on the events of October 7th has caused pain within our membership that we did not intend. We believe it is important to both explain our process and to attempt to rectify the situation, as well as to unequivocally state that antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in this Guild.

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. 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. We did not, for example, make a comment after Russia invaded Ukraine, nor on terrorist attacks in Somalia, Pakistan or elsewhere. It can be an imprecise science for a labor union to pick and choose where it weighs in on both domestic and world affairs.

Our board is diverse in its membership and points of view. The opinions from the board about whether to put out a statement did not fall along religious or sectarian lines and mirrored what we have seen play out in our membership as a whole and in the broader community. When we made the difficult choice not to make a statement, it was not because we are paralyzed by factionalism or masking hateful views. We are American labor leaders, aware of our limitations and humbled by the magnitude of this conflict. However, we understand this has caused tremendous pain and for that we are truly sorry.

All of us in Guild leadership are horrified by the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th. The murder of so many innocent people in Israel is an abomination. We deeply mourn the deaths of innocent Palestinians ensnared in the violence in Gaza. We feel for all our members who have been affected, directly and indirectly. We hope that wisdom prevails in the region — and for the safety of all innocent people caught in the escalating violence.

As we move forward, we ask everyone to treat each other with respect and patience in this horrible time. What any of us write and say should not put writers in peril with each other. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us.

None of this, of course, has any effect on the Israeli and Palestinian people. What they need from us is not an expression of our anger and distrust toward each other, but a shared commitment to peace and the value of every human life.

Times staff writers Wendy Lee and Josh Rottenberg contributed to this report.