Miriam Margolyes, Harry Potter Actress: “I Am Not Antisemitic, I Am Anti-Child-Killing”
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Miriam Margolyes, actress from the Harry Potter films, has been accused of antisemitism after comparing Israel’s occupation of Gaza to the massacre of Jews during Nazi Germany. A group calling itself the Campaign Against Antisemitism claims Margolyes’s honors—including the BAFTA and the Order of the British Empire (OBE)—should be revoked.
At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Margolyes emphasized that she is not “anti-Jewish”: “I absolutely have the right to my Order of the British Empire. These are the words of cowards who think they matter. I’m proud of the honor, and I believe I deserve it, and I would be upset if it were taken away. But I don’t think that will happen. If it is, it means the government agrees I am undeserving.”
The 84-year-old actress added: “I am not antisemitic, I am anti-child-killing. I criticize the Israeli government. But I am also critical of British Jews—the community I belong to and who do not support me. I just want people to stop killing each other.”
In April 2024, in a video released by the Council of Australian Jewry, Margolyes said Jews must “in the name of humanity, demand a ceasefire with cries, pleas, and screams”: “I’ve lived 83 years, but I’ve never felt so ashamed because of Israel. And to me, it feels as if Hitler has won.”
She added: “[Hitler] turned us Jews from compassionate and kind people who believed in treating others as you would wish to be treated, into a nation that is vengeful, genocidal, and nationalistic, bent on killing women and children. Of course I condemn Hamas’s actions, of course I do. But what the Jews in Israel are doing is shocking, shameful, and evil, and I don’t understand why all Jews, especially synagogue members, don’t immediately demand that it stop.”
