Ha’aretz On Willis, Ryan Bogus Boycotts

A screen shot of the Ha’aretz headline about CAMERA uncovering the false report about Willis and Ryan boycotting Israel

We have just learned that the Hebrew edition of Ha’aretz covered CAMERA’s May findings that contrary to a Toronto Star report, Meg Ryan and Bruce Willis never boycotted Israel. Nirit Enderman wrote in the May 23 Gallery section (CAMERA’s translation, “Contrary to reports: Meg Ryan and Bruce Willis Are Not Boycotting Israel”):

Hollywood stars Meg Ryan and Bruce Willis never boycotted Israel, it has been reported in response to a Toronto Star article published two weeks ago. The Canadian paper with the largest circulation published an article May 8 about physicist Stephen Hawking’s announcement that, in protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, he decided to cancel his participation in President Peres’ conference. In doing so, according to the Canadian paper, Hawking joined a number of celebrities, including musicians Stevie Wonder and Elvis Costello, and actors Bruce Willis and Meg Ryan, who in recent years chose to boycott Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

In response, representatives of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) — an American pro-Israel organization — notified the paper’s editors that the information was incorrect. They clarified that Willis’ planned visit with Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme last July was cancelled at the last minute following the death of Stallone’s son, and was unrelated to political considerations. They sent editors a statement from the actors’ film producers confirming the information. In addition, CAMERA posted a pro-Israel ad condemning Hamas and Hezbollah, signed by Willis and published in the American media in 2006. As a result, Star editors published a correction stating that “Willis has never boycotted Israel.”

CAMERA did not stop there, however. They also turned to Meg Ryan’s publicist and asked for his response. A post yesterday on CAMERA’s site yesterday said that Steven Huvane, Ryan’s publicist, responded to CAMERA, “That report is untrue. Meg Ryan never participated in any boycott against Israel.”

In response to CAMERA’s follow up question, regarding the claim that Ryan was supposed to attend the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2010 but cancelled at the last minute, Huvane wrote: “I am her publicist and I am not aware of her committing to the Jerusalem Film Festival. She may have been invited although I dont [sic] have record of that but we never committed to attending.”

(All hyperlinks in the above translation were added by CAMERA, and did not appear in the original.)

Two days after Enderman’s article appeared, the Toronto Star commendably corrected the Meg Ryan error, as well as an error about Stevie Wonder, who did not boycott Israel, though he cancelled his participation in a Los Angeles Friends of the IDF benefit concert.