After a fleeting peace, Israel has broken its ceasefire agreement with Hamas and resumed air strikes on Gaza. The attacks seem to have only ramped up in intensity and horror. Officially, the death toll has passed 50,000, but the true total is thought to be much higher.
Israel shows no signs of slowing down its war. Many celebrities with Arab backgrounds have condemned Israel’s action and there has been a wave of support for Palestinians from international voices. Since the resumption of fighting, more celebrities have been rallying in support of Palestine.
Here are some of those celebrities using their platforms to call for an effective ceasefire.
Paloma Faith
On Saturday, Paloma Faith joined protesters rallying near the Israeli embassy in London. The British singer delivered a rousing speech, vowing that she "won't fall silent until Palestine is free”.
“When the ceasefire was called, like all of you I was relieved but fearful that it would not last,” she said. “I know that Israel has violated every ceasefire agreement it has ever signed, but even with that knowledge and that fear, even after watching months of that genocide, I wasn’t prepared for these new depths of brutality to which Israel has descended.”
Faith also underscored the number of children who have been killed in the Israeli onslaught. “A child [is] slaughtered every eight minutes, we should stand in silence for a minute for every child killed in Gaza in this genocide but if we did that, we’d be silent for over 300 hours so I won’t fall silent.”
Hannah Einbinder
Hannah Einbinder was honoured at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday. The Hacks star, who received the Visibility Award, used her spotlight to underscore the suffering of Palestinians and the tragedies unfolding in Gaza.
“I am horrified by the Israeli government’s massacre of well over 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza,” she said. “I am ashamed and infuriated that this mass murder is funded by our American tax dollars. It should not be controversial to say that we should all be against murdering civilians.”
Einbinder, who is Jewish, said her criticisms were in line with the teachings of her faith.
“I love being Jewish and I am so proud of my tradition,” she said. “I was taught that central to being a Jew is asking questions, being inquisitive, arguing, wrestling with opposing points of view, questioning my own beliefs in order to keep learning and growing into a better human being, a better citizen of the world.”
“I see it as antithetical to our deepest Jewish traditions to fall in line and not question the actions of a state enacting atrocities in our name,” she added. “Israel’s actions are not in the name of Jewish safety and it is the very conflation of Israel’s actions with the Jewish people that continues to endanger Jews.”
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield was explicit in his expression of solidarity during his appearance on the podcast Happy Sad Confused in October 2024, after the first anniversary of the conflict. The actor was asked what kind of roles he wanted to take on, to which he replied he would rather be highlighting “something that actually matters”.
“We should be putting our energy toward something that actually matters,” he said. “Maybe the lives of, I don’t know, Palestinians in Gaza right now. Maybe that’s where we put our hearts and our energy in, and anyone suffering, anyone oppressed, anyone that is suffering under the weight of the horrors of our world right now, anyone who doesn’t have a choice in living lives of dignity. That’s where our energy should be going right now.”
Garfield was among the cultural figures who signed the Artists4Ceasefire letter that urged then US President Joe Biden to facilitate a ceasefire in Gaza.
Marcia Cross
The Desperate Housewives actress has been outspoken against the war on social media, often addressing her posts directly to US politicians, including former house speaker Nancy Pelosi and former vice president Kamala Harris.
Cross has been calling for peace and a ceasefire in Gaza since October 2023, and remains diligent with her posts. Her Instagram biography currently reads: “Mama, actress, activist, ceasefire!”
“It's about the land. And extermination of the Palestinian people. Sick,” she previously wrote on X, when reposting a tweet from news site Drop Site reporting on an air strike in Gaza that reportedly killed 80 people in October 2024.
In February, she posted a quote from Iraqi-American lawyer and poet Tina Al-khersan on Instagram, which read: “I'm struggling to comprehend how to live among people with eyes that don't water, hearts that don't flinch, and voices that remain silent.”
Fernanda Castillo
Celebrated Mexican actress Fernanda Castillo has been using her social media platform to bring attention to the children that have been killed as a result of Israel’s attack on Gaza. The El Senor de los Cielos star has been consistently posting stories on her Instagram, highlighting the humanitarian crisis to her seven million followers.
John Legend
John Legend addressed the conflict during an October 2024 interview with Mehdi Hasan on the media platform Zeteo.
The singer said it was devastating to see how many children have been killed in the war in Gaza. He added it makes him “very frustrated at how we easily dehumanise certain people, based on where they live, the colour of their skin, their religion, whether they are allies with our country”.
Legend also said it was important that the US recognises it has a part to play in the conflict.
“I really think it revolves around the idea of accountability, and using our aid to Israel as leverage,” he said. “I don’t think we should be writing blank cheques to any country that we are allied with and that any kind of assistance we provide, any kind of weapons we send, should come with conditions. That’s a very sensible way to conduct foreign policy. We do it everywhere else, so let’s do it there too.”
Legend has been a longtime vocal supporter of the Palestinian people. In 2020, he appeared on The Intercept podcast, which was also hosted by Hasan, who described him as “one of the few celebrities – actual A-listers – who has linked the fight for human rights, civil liberties, the fight against detention and mass incarceration here at home in the US to what's been going on in the occupied Palestinian territories”.
“Clearly it's wrong what is happening to the Palestinians, it's so obvious. Anyone who doesn't believe that is the case is being wilfully blind, I believe,” Legend said on the podcast.
Javier Bardem
In 2014, Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem cosigned an open letter that condemned the Israeli bombing of Palestinians. Around that same time, he also published a statement on the Spanish newspaper El Diario, saying: “I cannot understand this barbarism, even more brutal and incomprehensible considering all of the horrible things the Jewish people have gone through in the past.”
Bardem faced significant backlash as a result, which led him to publish another statement, saying: “While I was critical of the Israeli military response, I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses. I am now being labelled by some as anti-Semitic, as is my wife [Penelope Cruz] – which is the antithesis of who we are as human beings. We detest anti-Semitism as much as we detest the horrible and painful consequences of war.”
Bardem had since then been largely silent about the conflict in Gaza. However, as the war continued to escalate, the actor was driven to, yet again, call for peace. While accepting an award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September, Bardem criticised Hamas’s attack on October 7, as well as the “massive punishment that the Palestinian population is enduring”.
Speaking to AP after the event, Bardem elaborated on his decision to speak out: “I believe that we can and must help bring peace. If we take a different approach, then we will get different results. “The security and prosperity of Israel and the health and future of a free Palestine will only be possible through a culture of peace, coexistence and respect.”
Gustaf Skarsgard
Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgard called for a ceasefire in Gaza with a heartbreaking and evocative gesture. During a protest in Stockholm that marked the one-year anniversary of the war, the Vikings star took to the podium and read from a large black ledger the names of the children that have been killed in Gaza.
Skarsgard was among several people who read the names of the children killed. Although the protest event reportedly took 10 hours, running between 8am and 6pm, the full list of names was not read aloud completely.
Greta Thunberg
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg took part in a string of rallies across Europe around the one-year anniversary mark of the conflict while wearing a keffiyeh. One of those protests was in Milan on October 11, 2024. More than 1,000 people participated in the protest, and Thunberg took the opportunity to point out that it was just as necessary to stand against the violence in Gaza as it was to fight for the planet's health.
“Silence is complicity,” Thunberg said in her speech, a keffiyeh draped over her shoulders. “You cannot be neutral in a genocide.”
“If you, as a climate activist don’t also fight for a free Palestine and an end to colonialism and oppression all over the world, then you should not be able to call yourself a climate activist,” she said. “You cannot claim to fight for climate justice if you ignore the suffering of all colonised and marginalised people today.”
A version of this story was first published in October 2024
