Leonardo DiCaprio to Build 14-Story Hotel in Israel

According to Cinemadrame News Agency, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Oscar-winning actor from The Revenant, is investing in the construction of a 14-story hotel in Israel. A few years ago, the Daily Mail reported in 2018 that DiCaprio was participating in such a project, but with the ongoing Israel-Palestine war and the famine crisis in Gaza, the Jerusalem Post has now published further details.

According to the report, the hotel will have 14 floors and 365 rooms, and instead of being built on a 10,000-square-meter plot, it will now expand to cover an area of 51,000 square meters. DiCaprio will hold a 10 percent stake in the project and will collaborate with the Ahikam brothers and Lior Cohen.

DiCaprio, who has always sought to portray himself as an environmentalist, said at the time of announcing the project: “Green development is an essential part of building communities that live in harmony with nature, rather than in opposition to it.”

The report, published as the world’s attention remains focused on the destruction in Gaza, has sparked a wave of criticism toward DiCaprio. DiCaprio is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, but after twenty-two months, he has yet to make any statement on the Israel-Palestine war, which UN officials have described as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

American author and social activist Shaun King wrote on X: “While Gaza is in the midst of famine, Leonardo DiCaprio is building a 14-story luxury hotel in Israel. Hollywood’s silence is one thing, but Leonardo DiCaprio continues to profit from an apartheid regime in the midst of a genocide. The approval for this hotel’s construction was just granted.”

From September 26, DiCaprio will appear in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film One Battle After Another in cinemas across the US and UK.