Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes denounced the "vicious genocidal nationalist nation" of Israel Friday, declaring, "Hitler has won."
Margolyes, who played Professor Pomona Sprout, released a video statement in support of the anti-Israel Jewish Council of Australia. The Jewish Council has referred to the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza as "genocide."
The Jewish Council posted the video on X, saying, "The indomitable Miriam Margolyes [Order of the British Empire] has a message in support of the Jewish Council! She calls for all of us Jews to ‘shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire.’"
Margolyes opened her video by saying she wished to express support for the Jewish Council of Australia before declaring, "I’m an Australian citizen, I’m 83, and I have never been so ashamed of Israel as I am at this moment. To me, it seems as if Hitler has won."
She said Hitler has "changed us Jews from being compassionate and caring and ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ into this vicious genocidal nationalist nation, pursuing and killing women and children."
"Of course, I condemn the Hamas action, of course I do," Margolyes said. "But what we are doing — Jewish people, over in Israel — is shocking, embarrassing, and wicked, And I cannot understand why all Jewish people, particularly members of synagogues, do not want immediately to stop what is going on."
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She then issued a call for action.
"In the name of humanity, I call upon all Jews to shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire," she said.
Margolyes went on to argue that there is a difference between antisemitism and criticism of Israeli military policy.
"It is not antisemitic to have a different opinion on the wartime actions now," she said. "We have to do, as my mother used to say, the right thing. The right thing is a ceasefire to stop the killing — certainly to beg and insist on the release of hostages — but there is an opinion about Israel’s actions, which is it’s not antisemitic to voice what Israel is doing is wrong, it is wicked, and if you want to say this is very bad for Israel."
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Margolyes concluded her video by urging viewers, "Please, call on your rabbis, on your communities, on all the people you know, voice your disgust and detestation of the Israeli actions. Please. You are then doing the right thing and behaving in accordance with Jewish tradition."
