Academy Award-winning actor Natalie Portman may not be the first influential Jew to boycott Israel to protest the government’s policies toward the Palestinians, but she is, undoubtedly, the best known and most glamorous.

Portman, born in Jerusalem, announced on April 20 that she would not be attending the June ceremony at which she was to receive the 2018 Genesis Prize, also known as the “Jewish Nobel Prize.” She explained that she did not want to be seen as supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was slated to address the ceremony. This made Portman the target of unrestrained attacks by right-wing politicians, some of whom even denounced her as a collaborator with the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement targeting Israel because of the occupation.

Until April 20, Portman was considered the pride of Israelis and Jews worldwide. The speed and ease with which someone like her suddenly became an enemy of the state, simply because she did not want to participate in an official event alongside Netanyahu, is a testament to the benighted morals of everyone who took part in the ugly smear campaign against her. Among those taking part were Likud ministers, including Culture Minister Miri Regev, who said that Portman had fallen like a ripe fruit into the hands of the BDS movement, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who accused Portman of relying on Hamas propaganda, and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who described her statements as bordering on anti-Semitism.

The Likud, in its official response, called Portman a hypocrite, claiming that she “speaks about human rights while participating in festivals whose records on human rights are much worse than that of Israel. She simply refuses to accept the decision of the people living in Israel.”