Jewish comedian and actress Amy Schumer shared her feelings about rising antisemitism due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “The focus is so razor-sharp on Jewish people but not on Hamas. It’s very strange," she told Variety magazine in an article published on Tuesday.
During filming that took place in March in Brooklyn for her next movie Kinda Pregnant, in which she plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant to get attention, a passerby interrupted one of the scenes by yelling at her: "Fuck you, Amy Schumer! You're a Zionist You love genocide!" But the actress, who is already used to this kind of thing, didn't break character and told Variety, “It didn’t even raise my heart rate. “I didn’t cry. Nothing.”
Schumer said that in her opinion the current discourse surrounding the war in the Middle East is very one-sided, and she would like to change that.
“The focus is so razor-sharp on Jewish people but not on Hamas,” she says. “It’s very strange. So I’d recommend people read a book — Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby. Or anything — Jewish people wrote everything down.”
Schumer has spoken out on social media many times on behalf of Jews and Israel since the October 7 attack and received criticism for it. Among other things, she shared a video of Martin Luther King Jr. in which he condemns antisemitism and says that Israel has the right to exist. Bernice King, the activist's daughter, responded to Schumer's post and said that while she and her father oppose antisemitism, she was “certain he would call for Israel’s bombing of Palestinians to cease, for hostages to be released, and for us to work for true peace, which includes justice.”
“It’s gotten to this place,” Schumer says, “where you can’t speak up for other Jews without people feeling like it’s a slight to the conditions in Gaza,”she says in an interview, but she wants people to know that her activism does not mean that she supports the Israeli government.
“I don’t agree with anything that Netanyahu is doing, and neither do the Israelis I know. Of course what’s going on in Gaza is sickening, horrifying and unthinkable.” She adds, “And, I don’t think it’s OK to hate anyone because they were born Jewish.”
During the interview, a woman in her 20s approached the table and addressed Schumer. “Thank you for everything you’re doing for Israel,” the Brooklynite said. “I follow you on social media. I used to live in Israel and … thank you. We support you.”
After the woman disappears, Schumer says, “That moment you just saw? Maybe 10 times a day that happens to me.”