Later, actor Mahershala Ali, who did not walk the red carpet but stepped on stage to introduce this year’s nominees for the Best Supporting Actor award, was also seen wearing the pin.
Since none of these celebrities have seemingly worked on the same project together, it left a lot of people questioning what the pin signified. The pin in question was a circular red pin that featured a small black heart with the outline of a hand around it.
A lot of people were left wondering what the pin meant. The artists wore these pins to support the call for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. Since Israel launched its war on Gaza, Palestinian health authorities report that so far over 30,000 have been killed since October 7th. Many of those killed by Israel’s attack have been children, as according to statistics, almost half of Gaza’s population are children under 18 years old.
As the killing of Palestinian civilians enters its sixth month, people are rallying more than ever for a ceasefire in the region. Artists in Hollywood and beyond have joined the call for peace as well. A group of over 400 celebrities joined the Artists4Ceasefire campaign. The campaign published a letter in late October urging President Joe Biden and the US Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.
But unlike the pins, which symbolized movements like the Time’s Up movement in 2018, worn by almost every celebrity at the red carpet, the pins supporting a call for a ceasefire were donned by only a handful of celebrities at the 2024 Oscars. Earlier this year, at the Grammy Awards, only Boygenius and Annie Lennox were seen wearing the same pins, with Lennox notably pleading for a ceasefire on stage.
Actors Milo Machado-Graner and Swann Arlaud, who were in the film Anatomy of a Fall, were also seen wearing pins of the Palestinian flag on the red carpet.
Ramy Youssef, a comedian and actor who co-starred in ‘Poor Things’ alongside Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo expressed his frustrations with the lack of momentum in the call for a ceasefire and subsequent end of the war against Gaza.
“There’s no other route,” Youssef said in an interview alluding to the call for a ceasefire. “It’s taking so long… That’s what we’re all encouraging everyone to be vocal about.”
Other stars who were signatories on the Artists4Ceasefire letter included Cate Blanchett, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Bradley Cooper and America Ferrera.
