Game of Thrones star disables Instagram comments over antisemitic abuse

Game of Thrones star Laura Pradelska has told BBC Radio 5 Live today she disabled comments on her Instagram account after receiving antisemitic abuse.

The German Jewish actress, who plays Quaithe in the HBO series, said she was the target of antisemitic abuse on the app and her “skin wasn’t thick enough to take it.”

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett, Pradelska said most of the abuse has “to do with Israel”.

Pradelska said: “It’s completely uncalled for because I tend to post pretty pictures, or pictures of rehearsal or of work that I do.”

“I am outspoken, and I do work with organisations. That doesn’t mean I necessarily have to have a political opinion, and I’m not really equipped to go into major discussions.

“It’s usually also from people that hide behind some sort of strange name.”

Board of Deputies Vice President Amanda Bowman said: “That Laura Pradelska has had to disable comments on her Instagram account because of a profusion of antisemitic comments is terribly upsetting for her and worrying for all Jews.

“We call on social media networks to work to identify and banish racists and their disgusting comments.”

BBC presenter Emma Barnett has also been the target of antisemitic abuse online.

In 2017, a Labour member was suspended following an investigation into abusive messages, after Barnett interviewed Jeremy Corbyn on the radio show ‘Woman’s Hour.’ 

Dave Rich, head of policy at the Community Security Trust, said: “Sadly time and time again we see prominent Jewish people subjected to antisemitic abuse on social media, just because they are Jewish.

“It’s a disgrace that anybody has to put up with this and social media companies need to do more to support people who experience hate on their platforms.”

Pradelska, who is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, has previously spoken publicly about each of her four grandparents’ heroic tales of survival in the Holocaust.

Her paternal grandmother, Klara Stern, gave birth to her first child in a labour camp in Nowy Sacz, Poland.

Stern’s parents and son were murdered by the Nazis and she was later separated from her husband and deported to Auschwitz.

After the war, Stern discovered only eight of over 120 family members had survived the war and she married a fellow Holocaust survivor, Henry Pradelski.

Pradelska’s maternal grandmother, Esther Schultz, is also a survivor, who managed to secure forged Aryan papers.

Instagram has been contacted for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.