Actress Julianna Margulies has apologized for accusing black people of being ‘brainwashed to hate Jews’, and saying people using they/them pronouns would be beheaded ‘if they stepped foot in an Islamic country.’
The 57-year-old star of The Good Wife was strongly criticized for her remarks, made in a November 21 episode of The Back Room podcast with Andy Ostroy.
Ostroy, a writer and filmmaker, is Jewish, like Margulies, and the pair are both outspoken in their support of Israel amid the war with Hamas.
Margulies’ comments sparked widespread anger, and on Friday she apologized for any offense to the black and LGBTQ community, which she said she ‘loves and respects’.
‘I am horrified by the fact that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, communities I truly love and respect,’ she said, in a statement to Deadline.
Julianna Margulies, pictured in June this year, apologized on Friday for her remarks made during a podcast interview
A pro-Palestine protester is seen in New York City, demanding an end to the Israel-Hamas war
‘I want to be 100% clear: Racism, homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice against anyone’s personal beliefs or identity are abhorrent to me, full stop.
‘Throughout my career I have worked tirelessly to combat hate of all kind, end antisemitism, speak out against terrorist groups like Hamas, and forge a united front against discrimination.
‘I did not intend for my words to sow further division, for which I am sincerely apologetic.’
Margulies told Ostroy, in the podcast, that she was horrified by the LGBTQ community’s support of the Palestinian cause.
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and launched the October 7 terror attack, and the Fatah, which controls the West Bank, are strongly opposed to gay rights and have executed people for being gay.
She said no-one who is non-binary should support Palestine’s cause.
Ostroy said that ‘people hate Jews,’ then said antisemitism was so widespread at universities there was more anger about using ‘the wrong pronouns on college campuses.’
Margulies replied: ‘Oh my god, forget it. ‘It’s those kids who are spewing this anti-Semitic hate that have no idea if they stepped foot in an Islamic country—these people who want us to call them they/them, or whatever they want us to call them… it’s those people that will be the first people beheaded and their heads played with like a soccer ball, like a soccer ball on the field.
‘And that’s who they’re supporting? Terrorists who don’t want women to have their rights? LGBTQ people get executed.’
Margulies came under fire for stating that supporters of Palestine have been ‘brainwashed to hate Jews’
Margulies made the controversial comments at during an episode of The Back Room podcast last month
Her bizarre rant saw her claim that black and LGBTQ people supporting Palestine are ‘lower than the Jews’
Margulies claimed that the black LGBTQ community was ‘even lower than the Jews’ in the eyes of Islamists.
She told how a ‘black lesbian club’ at Columbia University screened a film and ‘put signs up that said: ‘No Jews allowed.”
Margulies said: ‘As someone who plays a lesbian journalist on The Morning Show, I am more offended by it as a lesbian than I am as a Jew.
‘Because I wanna say to them: ‘You f***ing idiots. You don’t exist. You’re even lower than the Jews. A: You’re black, and B. You’re gay, and you’re turning your back against the people who support you?’
‘Because Jews, they rally around everybody.’
She said that she was disappointed there were not more black people showing their support for the Jewish community.
‘In the civil rights movement, the Jews were the ones that walked side by side with the Blacks — to fight for their rights, because they know,’ Margulies said.
‘And now the black community isn’t embracing us and saying, ‘We stand with you the way you stood with us.’
‘Jews died for their cause. The fact that the entire black community isn’t standing with us to me says they don’t know or they have been brainwashed to hate Jews.’