Miriam Margolyes's OBE should be stripped, says anti-Semitism group
The Harry Potter actress, who is Jewish, claimed Adolf Hitler has 'won' by making Jewish people 'like him' during Israel's recent occupation of Gaza.
The 83-year-old added that while she acknowledged the 'wickedness and cruelty' inflicted on Jews by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, the Israeli government was now doing the same to Palestinians in Gaza.
She said in an interview with The Big Issue: 'I cannot bear to think that my people are doing exactly the same thing to another nation.
'And the nation they are doing it to, the Palestinian nation, was not responsible for the Holocaust, it had nothing to do with it. That was a purely European pleasure.
'So my heart is broken and I think the terrible thing I have to face is Hitler won. He changed us. He made us like him.'
Now a spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for the actress to be stripped of her OBE that she won for her performance in The Age of Innocence in 1993. The group added that the comparison between Nazi Germany and Jews was 'racist bilge'.
'This must be the end of the road for Miriam Margolyes. The fact that she was born Jewish does not give her a licence to use her immense platform to spread anti-Jewish venom,' the spokesman said.
'Saying that Hitler converted the Jews into Nazis is flat out racist bilge and she must be shunned by the show business world that has fawned and bowed until now. This includes stripping her of her Bafta.
'We will be writing to the Honours Forfeiture Committee to ask that her OBE be removed.'
Margolyes touched on similar themes on social media earlier this week, saying Hitler had turned Jews 'from being compassionate and caring .. into this vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation'.
'Jewish and vile'
The British-Australian actress has a history of making controversial comments about the war in Gaza, having also said she had 'never been so ashamed of Israel' over its tactics in Gaza.
She has previously called on Jews to 'shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire' in Gaza.
In October last year, Margolyes was cleared over comments she made during a BBC interview in which she used the phrase ' Jewish and vile '.
Despite a complaint to the Executive Complaints Unit, the BBC's highest complaints body, ruled that her comments were not racist.
Margolyes's latest comments likening Jews to Hitler have been seized upon by pro-Palestinian supporters on social media.
More than six million Jews died at the hands of Nazi Germany during World War Two.
Jonathan Sacerdoti, a broadcaster and campaigner against anti-Jewish racism who submitted the complaint to the BBC, said Margolyes was known to make offensive comments about Jews.
Pressure on Israel
The opposition against Israel's occupation of Gaza has grown in recent weeks following claims the Israeli government was blocking aid from the territory's two million residents.
Pictures on social media of starving Palestinian children in Gaza in recent weeks have also helped increase pressure on Israel over the war in Gaza, which has been going on for a year and nine months.
Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, has backed a push by more than one third of Labour MPs for the UK to follow Emmanuel Macron and recognise the Palestinian state.
Sir Keir Starmer has so far resisted the pressure, amid fears Labour could lose 20 seats over the issue at the next election.
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