Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Nearly 20 months since the war began, Israel continues its aggression in Gaza. Officially, the death toll in the enclave has reached nearly 54,000.
Many celebrities have condemned Israel’s actions, and there has been a wave of support for Palestinians from international voices. Here are some celebrities using their platforms to call for an effective ceasefire and support the Palestinian cause.
Benedict Cumberbatch
The British actor joined 300 public figures including Dua Lipa, Annie Lennox, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed in signing an open letter calling on the British government to cease what they describe as its “complicity in the horrors in Gaza".
The letter was initiated by UK charity Choose Love and is addressed to UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. “We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza,” the letter, obtained by Sky News, reads. “Right now, children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine sit just minutes away, blocked at the border. Words won’t feed Palestinian children – we need action. Every single one of Gaza’s 2.1 million people is at risk of starvation, as you read this."
The letter urges the British government to block sales of UK arms to Israel. It also calls for immediate humanitarian access to Palestinians for aid agencies, and for the UK to help in brokering a ceasefire. The letter was co-signed a handful of Arab figures, including surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta and filmmakers Farah Nabulsi and Waad Al Kateab.
Imagine Dragons
Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds sparked a wave of reactions online after he wore a Palestinian flag draped over his shoulders during the band’s recent concert in Milan.
The moment, caught on video and widely circulated on social media, has reignited debate over the band’s earlier decision to perform in Tel Aviv despite calls for a boycott.
During the show, a fan tossed the Palestinian flag onto the stage. Reynolds then picked it up, held it aloft and then wore it around his shoulders as he continued performing.
Malala Yousafzai
On May 20, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai shared a post on X that said: “It makes me sick to my stomach to see Israel’s cruelty and brutality in Gaza.”
She went on to say that she is heartbroken seeing thousands of starving children, demolished schools and hospitals, blocked humanitarian aid and displaced families.
“Our collective humanity calls for global and immediate action. I call on every world leader to put maximum pressure on the Israeli government to end this genocide and protect civilians,” Yousafzai added in her post.
Shared nearly 5,000 times, the post concluded with a call to support humanitarian organisations such as UN agency for Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund.
Paloma Faith
In March, 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.”
Faith also appeared in a video alongside other British celebrities, including Juliet Stevenson and Alexei Sayle, to call for a boycott of Israeli products.
Titled Boycott the Apartheid, it featured calls from the celebrities to stop purchasing products and goods made on occupied Palestinian land.
Kneecap
Irish rap band Kneecap have been vocal in their support of the Palestinian cause. Most notably, they used their platform at the music festival Coachella in California to project the words “free Palestine” on stage.
“The Irish, not so long ago, were persecuted by the Brits, but we were never bombed from the skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their home and they’re bombing them from the sky,” said band member Mo Chara on stage during the Coachella set.
Kneecap have since had their US work visas revoked.
Riz Ahmed
British actor Riz Ahmed posted a video on his Instagram account in October 2024 asking for donations to be made to Gaza and Lebanon. The video also featured fellow British actor Joe Alwyn and Irish actress Ruth Negga.
In February, Ahmed joined filmmakers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh in signing an open letter after a BBC documentary on Gaza was pulled from the broadcaster's streaming service.
The documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was removed from BBC iPlayer following the revelation that its narrator's father holds a position in Gaza's Hamas-run government.
On May 19, Ahmed signed another open letter alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Juliette Binoche and Guillermo del Toro, condemning the film industry's silence over Gaza.
Hannah Einbinder
Hannah Einbinder was honoured at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles in March. 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 criticism was 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 kinds of roles he wanted to take on, to which he replied: “We should be putting our energy towards something that actually matters. 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 oppressed, anyone 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 who 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”.
Legend said on the podcast: “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.”
Javier Bardem
Back 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 who 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 in October. 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. You cannot be neutral in a genocide,” Thunberg said in her speech, a keffiyeh draped over her shoulders.
“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.”
Eurovision winner JJ
Eurovision 2025 winner JJ has criticised the Israeli government for its actions in Gaza and has urged that Israel be barred from participating in next year's competition.
“It's very disappointing to see Israel still participating. I would like Eurovision to be held without Israel in Vienna next year,” the Austrian-Filipino singer told Spanish daily El Pais.
“But the ball is in the European Broadcasting Union's court. We, the artists, can only speak out on the matter.”
JJ, whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, won the 69th Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria. He narrowly beat Israel's Yuval Raphael, who surged later in the competition via public votes.
A version of this story was first published in October 2024
