Julianna Margulies apologizes for comments about Black community amid Israel-Hamas war

The actress says she is "horrified" that her statements, including that Black people may have been "brainwashed to hate Jews," caused offense.

Julianna Margulies is apologizing for comments made about the Black community amid the Israel-Hamas war, stating that she is "horrified" that her remarks caused offense.

"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,” Margulies said in a statement provided to EW. “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," the actress added. "I did not intend for my words to sow further division, for which I am sincerely apologetic.”

Margulies came under fire this week for comments she made on Andy Ostroy's Back Room podcast about the Black community's support for Palestine, where she suggested that the community may have been "brainwashed to hate Jews." They came after Ostroy said that "people hate Jews" and suggested that using "the wrong pronouns on college campuses" causes more uproar than antisemitism.

“It’s those kids who are spewing this antisemitic 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, which I have respectfully made a point of doing — it’s those people that will be the first people beheaded and their heads played with like a soccer ball. And that’s who they’re supporting?"

She also told Ostroy that Adolf Hitler "got his entire playbook from the Jim Crow South."

"In the civil rights movement, the Jews were the ones that walked side by side with the Blacks to fight for their rights," she said. "And now the Black community isn’t embracing us and saying, ‘We stand with you the way you stood with us.' The fact that the entire Black community isn’t standing with us to me says either they just don’t know, or they’ve been brainwashed to hate Jews."

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.