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 stripped away… evaporated”.
When asked about comments made earlier this year in which he claimed that Hitler’s impact on the Jewish people could be seen in the way Israel had become a “nationalist, genocidal and cruel nation,” the star Harry Potter star, 83, said he has no regrets and says it’s “because I know I’m right.”
Interviewed for Adam Buxton’s podcast, Margolyes admitted that her outspoken opinions had led to her losing friends, including “one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel.”
He continued: “I’m terribly sad that I offended some people, but for me, they showed that Hitler had won, and that, for me, was such a shock that it really hurt me, because I didn’t want to think that was possible.
‘But it is true, the essential decency and compassion of the Jewish people has been eliminated, evaporated, and it 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 that the “essential decency” of the Jewish people has “evaporated” in an interview for Adam Buxton’s podcast.
The 83-year-old actress has starred in Call the Midwife (pictured playing Mother Mildred) and Harry Potter.
Margoyles was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford, but in recent years she has become increasingly outspoken as a result of her hostility toward Israel.
She said she had been “deeply hurt” by the loss of friends who opposed her comments and stance following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.
She revealed that “one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel” had said: “I don’t want to be friends anymore, continue your journey well, don’t contact me again.”
“He was someone I was very close to,” Margolyes said.
‘That was, and is, a deep pain, and that doesn’t go away, but I can’t help it because I know I’m right.
‘I don’t know if I’m right about everything, but I do know that I’m right about the immorality of the Israeli position on Gaza and the activities of the Netanyahu government. I’m sure they acted wrong.’
Margolyes was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford, but in recent years she has become increasingly outspoken.
The actress (pictured) was previously left “hurt” by friendships torn apart over her pro-Gaza views.
Jewish organizations have repeatedly condemned Miriam for her attacks against them.
In August, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, he spoke of Dickens’ Fagin as “Jewish and vile” before adding: “I didn’t know Jews like that then, sadly I do now.”
And in April he condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying: ‘To me, it looks like Hitler has won.
“It has made us Jews stop being compassionate and take on this nationalistic, genocidal and vicious nation, persecuting and killing women and children.”
In 2014, he told the Radio Times: “I don’t think people like Jews.
They have never done it. English literature, my great love, is full of greasy, traitorous Jews.
The Campaign Against Anti-Semites accused the actress of holding “disgusting” opinions that could not be excused because she “happens to be Jewish.”
Former BBC journalist Sarah Deech accused Miriam of “plain, ugly racism, from a woman who has been given a pass because she is apparently a national treasure”.