Helen Mirren on Israel: 'How can you repeat what was done to your people and do it to others?'

Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren addressed today (Thursday) the incident in which she was verbally attacked in London by a man who called her an “evil Zionist bitch.” Mirren, who is currently in Sicily to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Taormina Film Festival, was asked about the incident, which actually took place last November but returned to the headlines in recent weeks after the video, in which she was filmed in East London with her husband, American director Taylor Hackford, was reshared.

“I was mistakenly attacked by a person who may have been overenthusiastic, or perhaps not completely mentally stable,” said Mirren, who has previously said she believes in Israel’s right to exist and, as noted, also played former Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv’s film “Golda.” The Oscar winner called for caution regarding what is read and seen on social media, and then sought to clarify her position on Israel. “Dark forces are rising everywhere, even in a country like Israel,” she said. “How can you repeat what was done to your people and do it to others?” she added, in what was seen as a comparison between the Holocaust and the current war in Gaza.

“I have many dear friends from Israel,” she continued. “The artistic and intellectual community in Israel is extraordinary. I was born at the end of World War II and grew up in postwar Europe. My parents’ generation’s understanding of what happened in the Holocaust was so deep and meaningful. That is why the establishment of the State of Israel was a very important moment. Maybe it was done completely the wrong way, in the wrong place, I don’t know. But something had to happen after that atrocity.”

The 80-year-old Mirren said she has “many Jewish friends” and that her first two husbands were Jewish. One of them was British, and with him she flew to Israel when she was young. She volunteered at Kibbutz HaOn on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee shortly after the Six-Day War, and referring to that period, she said briefly that she “saw some things” in Israel during the conflict, but did not elaborate further.

She later added: “When you play Catherine the Great, you ask why she was called ‘the Great.’ Because she conquered territories. Why was Alexander the Great called ‘the Great’? Because he conquered territories. He invaded, killed people, destroyed cities and took land. Why is he mentioned in history? Because through incomprehensible cruelty and immense brutality, he conquered territories. And it breaks my heart. That is what I mean. Evil is always lurking and waiting to take over, even in a place like Israel.”

She said that she “played Golda Meir and worked in a country that was, for me, the idealistic Israel. I always thought this was a country that would never do evil. But of course it did evil, even then.”