Jon Voight disagrees with Angelina Jolie‘s decision to support Palestinian refugees amid Israel‘s attack on Gaza. In an interview with Variety Tuesday, the 85-year-old criticized his once-estranged daughter for decrying the killing of innocent people in Israel’s siege over Gaza.
“She has been exposed to propaganda,” he told the outlet. “She’s been influenced by antisemitic people. Angie has a connection to the U.N., and she’s enjoyed speaking out for refugees. But these people are not refugees.”
Voight’s claim comes just days after the top United Nations court declared that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is unlawful, and called for it to end, as Associated Press reports. The court described Israel’s occupation as an “abuse of its status.”
In the interview, Voight discredited Jolie’s knowledge of world issues, telling Variety: “Angie, I think she hasn’t been available to this information because in Hollywood people don’t share this kind of stuff … They’re way off. They have no idea what’s going on. It’s a bubble.”
Jolie has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for 20 years, focusing her efforts on supporting those who have been forcibly displaced around the world. She formerly worked as a special envoy for the UNHCR.
When the Variety reporter expressed it was difficult to believe that Jolie would not have access to the “right information,” and that both of them are from Hollywood, Voight’s face became “red and beads of sweat appear[ed] on his forehead.”
“I love my daughter. I don’t want to fight with my daughter,” he told the reporter. “But the fact is, I think she has been influenced by the U.N. From the beginning, it’s been awful with human rights. They call it human rights, but it’s just anti-Israel bashing.”
“She’s ignorant of what the real stakes are and what the real story is because she’s in the loop of the United Nations,” he added.
In response to Voight’s comments, the Variety reporter cited a source close to Jolie, who told the outlet that the actress “does not speak about [her father] publicly” but that she wishes him “well.”
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, more than 38,295 Palestinians have been killed, and over 88,200 have been injured amid Israel’s siege in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations’ data.
In late October, Jolie shared a strongly worded statement condemning both the Hamas attack on Israel and the killing of “innocent lives” in Gaza by the Israeli military. “What happened in Israel is an act of terror,” she wrote at the time. “But that cannot justify the innocent lives lost in bombing a civilian population in Gaza that has nowhere to go, no access to food or water, no possibility of evacuation, and not even the basic human right to cross a border to seek refuge.”
Voight’s attack on his daughter comes a decade after he penned a letter claiming he was “heartsick” that Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and other celebrities were supporting Palestine after an attack from Israel in 2014. “Hang your heads in shame,” Voight wrote at the time. “You should all come forth with deep regrets for what you did, and ask forgiveness from the suffering people in Israel.”