Melissa Barrera Reportedly Fired from 'Scream VII' Because Pro-Palestinian Social Media Comments

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | November 21, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | November 21, 2023 |

Melissa Barrera, the ostensible lead in the Scream franchise over the last two films, has quietly been dropped from the film because of social-media comments she made regarding the Israel/Hamas war, as first reported in the print edition of Variety.

“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” Barrera wrote in one post on Instagram stories. “Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”

However, it wasn’t the pro-Palestinian posts that purportedly got her fired but a comment that Spyglass Entertainment believes crossed the line into antisemitism. According to Variety’s reporting, Barrera “referred to Israel as a ‘colonized’ land and floated an antisemitic trope that Jews control the media, writing: ‘Western media only shows the [Israeli] side. Why do they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself.’”

As someone sensitive to antisemitic tropes whose opinion likely does not align with that of Barrera, the reasoning here nevertheless lacks context and requires a bad-faith reading of an Instagram post that does not read as “Jews control Hollywood” but rather, “American media others and ignores the perspective of Palestinians.”

There is no place for antisemitism or Islamaphobia in the entertainment industry. Still, the industry must also allow for differences of opinion and permit voices critical of the Israeli government, just as it permits voices critical of extremist elements within American politics.

Source: Variety