Actress Julianna Marguiles has apologized for accusing black people of being “brainwashed to hate Jews”, saying people using their pronouns would be beheaded “if they set foot in a Muslim country”.
The 57-year-old star of The Good Wife was heavily criticized for her comments on a November 21 episode of The Back Room podcast with Andy Ostroy.
Ostroy, a writer and filmmaker, is Jewish, as is Marguiles, and the couple have both been outspoken in their support of Israel amid the war with Hamas.
Marguiles' comments sparked widespread anger, and on Friday she apologized for any offense toward the black and LGBTQ community, which she said she “loves and respects.”
“I am shocked that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, communities that I truly love and respect,” she said in a statement to Deadline.
Julianna Marguiles, pictured in June this year, apologized for her comments during a podcast interview on Friday
A pro-Palestinian protester is seen in New York City, demanding an end to the war between Israel and Hamas
“I want to be 100% clear: racism, homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice against someone's personal beliefs or identity are abhorrent to me, period.
“Throughout my career, I have worked tirelessly to combat hate of all kinds, end anti-Semitism, speak out against terrorist groups like Hamas, and forge a united front against discrimination.
“I did not intend for my words to cause further division, for which I sincerely apologize.”
Marguiles told Ostroy on the podcast that she was shocked by the LGBTQ community's support for the Palestinian cause.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and launched the October 7 terror attack, and Fatah, which controls the West Bank, strongly oppose gay rights and have executed people for being homosexual.
She said no one who is non-binary should support the Palestinian cause.
Ostroy said that “people hate Jews” and then said that anti-Semitism was so prevalent on college campuses that anger grew over the use of “the wrong pronouns on college campuses.”
Marguiles responded, “Oh my god, forget it. “It's those kids who express this anti-Semitic hatred, who have no idea if they've entered an Islamic country – these people who want us to call them they/them, or whatever they want us to call them… it's those people who will do that. the first humans were beheaded and their heads played like a football, like a football on the field.
“And that's who they support? Terrorists who don't want women to enjoy their rights? LGBTQ people are being executed.”
Margulies came under fire for claiming that supporters of Palestine were 'brainwashed to hate Jews'
Margulies made the controversial comments last month during an episode of the podcast The Back Room
In her bizarre rant, she claimed that black and LGBTQ people who support Palestine are 'lower than Jews'
Marguiles claimed that the black LGBTQ community was “even lower than the Jews” in the eyes of Islamists.
She told me how a “black lesbian club” at Columbia University showed a film and “put up signs that read, 'No Jews Allowed.'
Marguiles said, “As someone who plays a lesbian journalist on The Morning ShowI'm more offended by it as a lesbian than as a Jew.
'Because I want to say to them, 'You idiots. You don't exist. You are even lower than the Jews. A: You're black, and B. You're gay, and you turn your back on the people who support you?'
'Because Jews rally around everyone.'
She said she was disappointed that there weren't more black people showing their support for the Jewish community.
“In the civil rights movement, it was the Jews who walked side by side with the Blacks – to fight for their rights, because they know,” Margulies said.
“And now the black community doesn't embrace us and say, 'We stand with you like you stood with us.'
'Jews died for their cause. The fact that the entire black community is not behind us means to me that they don't know or that they have been brainwashed to hate Jews.”