MEL GIBSON - MEL GIBSON EXPLAINS DRUNKEN OUTBURST

MEL GIBSON EXPLAINS DRUNKEN OUTBURST

Mel Gibson said Friday that his anti-Semitic outburst after he was arrested for DUI on July 28 may have been a drunken response to the charges by Jewish organizations that his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ reinforced the argument that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. "I was subjected to a pretty brutal public beating. ... I thought I dealt with that stuff. But the human heart can bear the scars of resentment, and it will come out when you're overwrought and you take a few drinks." Gibson recalled that Jewish leaders had warned that the film might provoke anti-Semitic violence. "The film came out and you could have heard a pin drop. Not even the crickets weren't chirping. But the other thing I never heard was one single word of apology." Asked about his remark that "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," Gibson said that made it at the time of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Jews, he remarked, were "not blameless in the conflict. ... [but] let me be real clear here ... that I don't believe that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. ... That's an outrageous, drunken statement."


16/10/2006