William Wilcox

With every hateful message I receive, every death wish, every antisemitic tweet tagging me, I donate to good causes. I support content creators. I buy books by incredible authors and I do all I can to support Israel, whether its provide meals, uniforms for reserve soldiers, or planting trees in our holy land. Last week’s donations have gone towards buying ‘When We See You Again’ by the warrior lioness Rachel Goldberg-Polin. Turn the darkness into light. The hate into love and the poison into good. @JonPolin20

2 years ago I was honoured to present an award at the esteemed @BAFTAGames a career goal I wasn’t even aware I had.  BAFTA called me to ask if I would be interested and my initial reaction was to say no.  I’m much more comfortable out of the limelight, hidden away in a cosy studio not to be seen but to be heard. But, in the spirit of grabbing life by the cajones and saying yes to things more, I accepted.  It turned into being so much more meaningful than I could ever have expected. We were asked not to wear anything that remotely advertised a charity, or fashion label, or a message that held a political view and although I saw my yellow hostage pin that I wore constantly (to remind me of our hostages held in captivity by Hamas in Gaza) more humanitarian than political, out of respect for BAFTA and their very polite and reasonable request,  I left my pin at home. However, I took in my bag, along with my make up and change of clothes, my collection of photos of every single hostage being held in the tunnels of hell, placing them all in my evening bag which I’d had painted with the Bring Them Home Now slogan for another event and kept it with me, so I knew that even though I was invited to be part of such a glorious occasion, my beloved brethren in captivity would still be with me, at the forefront of my mind, even though it would be in the depths of my travel bag. That even though my pin wouldn’t be on my chest, I would know they were still with me.  When I got to the Green Room, one of my fellow presenters was wearing a keffiya, the symbol of the support of the erasure of my fellow Jews and Israel ‘by any means necessary’ and the sure sign of cheerleading for the globalising of the intifada, glorifying a violent uprising against Jews. I immediately regretted not having worn my pin and reminded one of the exec producers that we weren’t allowed any symbols and that I, myself, had honoured that request. She and other exec producers politely asked him to not wear it, but he refused, saying it was his right to represent ‘his people’ in Gaza.  I told them of my evening bag and asked permission to be able to use it on the red carpet to represent MY people, the people who had been kidnapped, raped and murdered  by the people he supported in Gaza. The execs firstly thanked me for the respect I had shown them and the BAFTA organisation, in honouring what they had politely asked from all those presenting and told me that not only did I have their blessing to use the bag with it’s specific wording, but that they would escort me down the red carpet. As I stood there in front of photographers, completely out of my comfort zone, shaking like a leaf, I was aware of not only representing my religion, standing with my brothers and sisters in captivity and our holy homeland but I realised that I had never felt more proud of myself. Much easier for me to hide away. To stay undetected, to be silent. So easy to stay under the radar, to put my career first. Not to rock the boat. But in the spirit of bravery and resilience, I chose to stand and be counted and to make sure, that even on the glamorous BAFTA carpet, that I stood for what was right and true, no matter the abuse I would and did receive for it over social media.  Thank you again BAFTA .  It was an evening I will cherish forever Good luck to all those presenting this evening. It is an honour you should hold with respect and never take for granted