Jewish TV star Adam Brody calls Israeli actions in Gaza ‘genocide’

Adam Brody, who stars as a rabbi in the Netflix rom-com series Nobody Wants This, for the first time publicly shared his view that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

“Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine,” Brody said in a new interview with GQ. “It’s awful that it’s taken so much death and misery, but it does feel like it’s reaching a breaking point that it should have a while ago.” 

Brody said he has spoken about his opinions on Israel privately, but until now had not “spoken much about it publicly.” He added that he hoped for another presidential administration to “correct some of these policies that are helping that situation be as awful as it is.”

Brody sees growing 'conservative' views in Hollywood

The Jewish actor plays Los Angeles-based rabbi Noah Roklov in the hit Netflix show, which returns for a third season on Oct. 22. It’s the latest in a string of Jewish roles that made him famous, including Seth Cohen in The OC and Seth Morris in Fleishman Is in Trouble. In real life, Brody has said he is an atheist who “barely got bar mitzvah'd and retained nothing from it.” 

Brody told GQ that the Gaza war, alongside other national and global crises, has revealed “more conservative” views among his Hollywood peers in recent years.

“Between COVID, a second Trump term, Israel-Gaza, it’s really brought out some different beliefs that I was ignorant of, and then disheartened by,” he said. 

Israel’s actions in Gaza have divided the entertainment industry. While celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Gal Gadot and Amy Schumer have voiced support for Israel since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, other Jewish actors have said that Israel is guilty of genocide in the retaliation that followed, including Hannah Einbinder and Wallace Shawn. Einbinder was among about 100 people arrested during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

The genocide accusation is heavily disputed. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry, along with international and Israeli human rights groups, has concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza fit that description. However, the International Court of Justice has not yet issued a final judgment on allegations of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel.

Israel has strongly rejected the accusation. Netanyahu, in his UN address last week, called it “the greatest lie of the 21st century,” saying that Israel “prevented genocide” by protecting Palestinians in Gaza while Hamas “used Palestinian civilians as human shields.”

Brody, Netflix, and representatives from Nobody Wants This did not immediately respond to requests for comment.