Miriam Margolyes has been one of Hollywood’s most recognizable Jewish actresses for decades — and for more than ten years, she has been one of its most uncompromising pro-Palestinian voices. The British-Australian actress, born in Oxford on May 18, 1941, and beloved by a new generation as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, has said publicly that a trip to Israel and the West Bank in 2012 changed her in a way she describes as permanent. Her position is not softened for comfort: she distinguishes sharply between Judaism and Zionism, and she argues her criticism comes directly from her Jewish values rather than in spite of them.
The Moment That ‘Lifted the Blind’
In a recent roundtable for Double Down News alongside fellow Jewish British figures Michael Rosen and Alexei Sayle, Margolyes described what happened during her 2012 visit with a bluntness that has defined her public persona for fifty years. ‘When you go to Israel and you see how Palestinians are treated, that for me was the door opening. The blind being lifted. And I saw — if people can treat people like that, they are shits. I will never get over that.’ She has said it was the last time she visited.
But her activism predates that trip. In 2010, Margolyes visited a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank with ActionAid, reporting on the realities of the occupation and settlements. She noted then that speaking out often made her feel like a ‘betrayer’ within parts of the Jewish community — a cost she has never stopped paying. She has lost friends over it. She has strained family relationships. She has faced demands from Jewish organizations that she be stripped of her OBE. She has not backed down once.
Margolyes comes from a secular Jewish family with roots in Belarus and Poland — the Eastern European diaspora that carries its own weight of historical persecution. That lineage, she argues, is exactly why she cannot stay silent when she believes similar cruelty is being enacted in her name. She has called Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank ‘wicked,’ ‘shocking,’ and ‘genocidal.’ She has urged Jews worldwide to ‘shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire.’ She has drawn explicit and controversial parallels to the Holocaust. The backlash has been significant. other Jewish celebrities who have spoken out on Gaza
Judaism Is Not Zionism — And She Has Said So for Years
The core of Margolyes’ position is a distinction she repeats with consistency: Judaism is a religion and ethical framework rooted in compassion and justice. Zionism is a political ideology — one she calls genocidal. ‘It’s a lot bigger than Zionism,’ she said in the clip. ‘Zionism is a political affiliation, a genocidal ideology.’ She does not believe in the concept of a Jewish state and has said the land should be for everyone living there, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
This is not a position she arrived at quickly or quietly. Over more than a decade of interviews, panels, and public appearances, Margolyes has tested and refined the argument. She is careful to separate her identity — fiercely Jewish, culturally and ethically — from a political project she sees as a betrayal of that identity. It is a position that puts her in a minority among publicly vocal figures, but alongside a real tradition: the late Harold Pinter held similar views, as do a number of diaspora activists who argue that the loudest pro-Palestinian Jewish voices often come from families who understand displacement firsthand.
Margolyes is 84 years old. She built her career on stage and screen over decades, earning roles in The Age of Innocence, Little Dorrit, and eventually the cultural phenomenon of Harry Potter — where she became, for millions of younger fans, the warm and eccentric Professor Sprout. That same generation is now watching her in a very different context: a Jewish woman of immense cultural warmth saying, without apology, that she will never get over what she saw. Whatever you think of the politics, that carries weight that a generic celebrity take simply does not.
- why some Jewish artists are speaking up about Palestine
