Miriam Margoyles launches new attack on ‘the Jewish people’ saying their ‘essential decency has evaporated’ in latest outspoken comments over Gaza
Call The Midwife actress Miriam Margolyes has launched a scathing new attack on ‘the Jewish people’ after claiming in a new interview that their ‘essential decency and compassion have been squeezed out… evaporated.’
Asked about comments earlier this year in which she claimed Hitler’s impact on the Jewish people could be seen in the way Israel had turned into a “cruel, genocidal, nationalist nation,” the 83-year-old Harry Potter star said she none regrets it and says it is ‘because I know I am right.’
Interviewed for the Adam Buxton podcast, Margolyes admitted that her outspoken views had caused her to lose friends, including “one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel.”
She continued: ‘I’m terribly sad that I offended some people, but for me they proved that Hitler had won, and that was such a shock for me that really hurt me because I didn’t want that. think that was possible.
“But it is true, the essential decency and compassion of the Jewish people have been squeezed out and evaporated, and that is a terribly sad thing.
“But if I don’t speak out against what I think is wrong, who am I?”
Miriam Margolyes (pictured) claimed the Jewish people’s ‘essential decency’ has ‘evaporated’ in an interview for the Adam Buxton podcast
The 83-year-old actress has starred in Call the Midwife (portrayed as Mother Mildred) and Harry Potter, among others.
Margoyles was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford, but has become increasingly outspoken in recent years as a result of her hostility towards Israel.
She said she was “deeply hurt” by the loss of friends who objected to her comments and by her stance following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
She revealed that “one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel,” had said, “I don’t want to be friends anymore, have a safe trip, don’t contact me anymore.”
“He was someone I had a really good relationship with,” Margolyes said.
‘That was and is a deep pain, and it won’t go away, but I can’t do anything about it, because I know I’m right.
“I don’t know if I’m right about everything, but I know I’m right about the immorality of Israel’s position on Gaza and the activities of the Netanyahu government. That I’m sure they did wrong.’
Margolyes was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford, but has become increasingly outspoken in recent years
The actress (pictured) has previously been ‘hurt’ by broken friendships due to her pro-Gaza views
Jewish organizations have repeatedly condemned Miriam for her attacks on them.
In August, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she spoke of Dickens’s Fagin character as “Jewish and vile” before adding: “I didn’t know Jews like that then – unfortunately I do now.”
And in April, she condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying: “To me it looks like Hitler has won.
“He has caused us Jews to go beyond compassion and into this cruel, genocidal, nationalist nation, chasing and killing women and children.”
In 2014, she told the Radio Times: ‘I don’t think people like Jews.
‘They never did that. English literature, my great love, is full of fat and treacherous Jews.’
The Campaign Against Antisemitic accused the actress of holding “abhorrent” views that could not be excused because she “happened to be Jewish.”
Former BBC journalist Sarah Deech has accused Miriam of ‘plain and ugly racism, from a woman who has been given a license because she is apparently a national treasure.’