The Emmy Awards are supposed to be about television. But this year, the real drama unfolded on the red carpet.
Two sets of symbols. Two competing stories. Two very different sides of history.
Javier Bardem arrived draped in a keffiyeh, fist raised high. To some, it’s just a cultural scarf. But for decades it has been brandished as a banner of “resistance”, the kind that glorifies terror and seeks to erase Jewish existence. On Hollywood’s biggest stage, Bardem chose to cloak himself in that message.
And he wasn’t alone. Hannah Einbinder, ended her speech with “Free Palestine.” Meg Stalter carried a “Ceasefire Now” purse across the carpet. Others wore ceasefire pins, as if it were the latest accessory. For hours, the red carpet echoed with a chorus of gestures pointing in one direction: Palestine.
Hollywood made its choice clear. Again and again, the cameras captured it: symbols of “resistance” presented as chic, slogans wrapped in glamour, politics paraded as fashion.
And yet, in the midst of it all, there was one voice, one figure, one moment that broke the pattern.
Emily Austin, a 24-year-old Jewish influencer, walked the carpet draped not in a keffiyeh, but in a Magen David. She carried the yellow ribbon that has become the cry for the hostages still trapped in Gaza. No shouting. No slogans. Just dignity, faith, and a reminder of the innocent men, women, and children abducted on October 7th.
That was the contrast: one side fashioning itself with symbols co-opted by terror; the other side carrying the weight of stolen lives. One side loud, trendy, and performative; the other side quiet, brave, and true.
Hollywood loves to claim the mantle of moral leadership. But when it mattered most, its stars failed the simplest of moral tests. Where were the pins for the kidnapped children? The purses for the murdered families? The speeches for the Jewish victims of the worst slaughter since the Holocaust?
They weren’t there. Only Emily stood for them.
It should not take a 24-year-old influencer to carry the memory of murdered Jews into Hollywood’s house. Yet she did what the A-listers would not. She turned the red carpet into a reminder that Jewish lives matter, that hostages must come home, and that Israel’s fight is for survival itself.
History has a way of remembering symbols. The photos from this year’s Emmys will outlast the trophies. Years from now, people will look back and ask: Who stood with terror, and who stood with truth? Who wore the keffiyeh, and who carried the hostages?
Javier Bardem made his choice. Hannah Einbinder made hers. Meg Stalter made hers. And Emily Austin made hers.
And when the history of this moment is written, only one of them will be remembered as standing on the right side.