Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren has reacted to an incident where she was verbally attacked by a pro-Palestinian activist who called her an “evil Zionist bitch.” The actress, who portrayed former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 2023 biopic Golda, was with her husband, Taylor Hackford, when the incident occurred last year in London.
Helen Mirren says she was “attacked by mistake” with husband Taylor Hackford
Now, addressing journalists about the verbal attack at the Taormina Film Festival, which is taking place from June 10 to June 14, Mirren said she was “attacked by mistake by a man who was perhaps overly passionate or not entirely stable,” reports Variety.
In the video, filmed last November, the individual is seen recording as he approaches Mirren and her husband. He begins by saying, “There’s Helen Mirren, the avowed Zionist.” The man then shouts at Mirren, claiming she had said Israel should “last forever because of the Holocaust” and alleging that she was “very happy that Palestinians’ houses were gone.” While Hackford can be heard repeatedly telling him to “f**k off” and leave them alone.
In the clip, the man was referring to comments Mirren made during a 2023 interview promoting Golda. In the interview, Mirren, who is not Jewish, said she supports Israel’s right to exist in the wake of the Holocaust and opposed cultural boycotts of the country. She also spoke about her first trip to Israel in 1967, shortly after the Six-Day War.
The 80-year-old said, as stated by The Times of Israel, “I witnessed things that were wrong. I saw Arabs being thrown out of their houses in Jerusalem. But it was just the extraordinary magical energy of a country just beginning to put its roots in the ground. It was an amazing time to be here.”
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