Canadian-American actor Seth Rogen says he was 'fed lies' about Israel as a Jewish person

The Jewish 38-year-old actor said that during his time at school he was never told that Palestinians used to live on Israeli soil.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff

29 July, 2020

Rogen said he doesn't agree with the creation of Israel as a religious need. [Getty]

Canadian-US actor Seth Rogan sparked controversy this week after explaining that he was "fed lies" about Israel growing up as a Jewish schoolkid in Canada and was never told about Palestinians.

The 38-year-old comic actor said that during his attendance of Jewish school and camp he was never told that Palestinians used to live on Israeli soil.

"[As a] Jewish person I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life," Rogen said in an interview with Marc Maron on an episode of his WTF podcast.

"They never tell you that, 'Oh, by the way, there were people there'. They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door’s open."

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He added that he doesn't agree with the creation of Israel as a religious need: "If it is for religious reasons, I don't agree with it, because I think religion is silly. If it is for truly the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense, because again, you don't keep something you're trying to preserve all in one place -especially when that place is proven to be pretty volatile, you know?"

Lahav Harkov, a senior contributing editor to The Jerusalem Post newspaper, criticised Rogen's comments on Twitter, saying they were "made from a position of really, really great privilege - and ignorance - if he can't understand why Israel makes sense to millions of Jews around the world".

Maron, who is also Jewish, agreed with Rogen that the pair would never live in Israel, adding that this sentiment would "piss off a bunch of Jews".

The Jerusalem Post contributing editor, Lahav Harkov, criticised Rogen on Twitter, saying his comments were made from a "position of really, really great privilege – and ignorance".

On the subject of anti-Semitism Rogen said: "I remember my dad frankly telling me, 'people hate Jews. Just be aware of that. They just do.' And it's honestly something that I am so glad was instilled in me from a young age, because if it wasn't, I would constantly be shocked at how much motherf***ers hate Jews, because they do!"

Similar outage broke most recently by Peter Beinar, a Jewish-American commentator, who questioned whether Liberals can support Israel while the state continues to break international law on its treatment of Palestinians.

After the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948, 700,00 Palestinians fled the state.

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