Calls for Margolyes to be stripped of OBE and BAFTA over Israel-Nazi comments

A leading UK antisemitism watchdog has called for actress Miriam Margolyes to be stripped of her OBE and BAFTA awards after she accused Israel of behaving like Nazi Germany in an interview about Gaza.

The Harry Potter star, 83, told The Big Issue that Israel’s military campaign reminded her of the Holocaust – declaring: “The terrible thing I face is that Hitler won. He changed us, made us like him.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) condemned the remarks as “repugnant” and said it would write to the Honours Forfeiture Committee and BAFTA, urging them to revoke her titles.

“The fact she was born Jewish does not give her license to use her immense platform to spread anti-Jewish venom,” the group said in a statement. “This has to be the end of the road. She must be shunned by the showbiz world that has fawned and bowed until now.”

Margolyes, who was born in 1941, described herself as “passionate” about Gaza “particularly because I am Jewish”. In the interview, she said she could not bear the thought that “my people are doing exactly the same thing to another nation. And the nation they are doing it to is the Palestinian nation. They were not responsible for the Holocaust; it was a European pleasure.”

The CAA also pointed to a string of previous controversies involving the actress, including comments in 2016 in which she appeared to suggest that “Jews and blacks are stingy,” and a 2015 Telegraph interview where she stated: “Nobody likes Jews… People understandably and correctly associate Israel with Jews, and Jews are killing people. Innocent people.”

More recently, in a BBC interview last October, she named Fagin as her favourite Charles Dickens character, calling him “Jewish and vile,” and adding: “I didn’t know Jews like that then. Sadly, I do now.” The BBC later edited the segment, though initially ruled it did not breach editorial standards.

The CAA criticised the broadcaster for airing the clip, arguing that Margolyes’s Jewish identity “does not grant her free rein to spew her repugnant sentiments in the guise of ‘comedy’”.

In 2020, she also suggested that antisemitism in the Labour Party had been “exaggerated” to damage Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of becoming prime minister – a claim the CAA previously criticised.

Margolyes has yet to respond publicly to the latest controversy. A spokesperson for The Big Issue said: “The Big Issue is an independent media organisation. As part of our editorial content, we regularly interview well-known figures in British society who will express their own opinions.”

Jewish News has contacted Margolyes’s UK representatives for comment.

She was awarded an OBE in 2002 for services to drama and received a BAFTA in 1994.