Dame Helen Mirren was subjected to a hostile tirade of abuse by a pro-Palestine activist on a London street, with the 80-year-old Oscar-winning actress being called an “evil Zionist b****” near Tower Hill as she walked with her husband at night — in an incident that has drawn widespread condemnation and renewed concern about the targeting of public figures over their perceived support for Israel.
Footage of the confrontation, uploaded to Instagram on 27 May by an anonymous account called Anti-Fascist Action UK, shows Mirren approaching the man calmly and asking if he was okay. The situation escalated rapidly. The man shouted: “And there is Helen Mirren the avowed Zionist. You said Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust. You are an evil Zionist b****.” He then turned on Mirren’s husband, director Taylor Hackford, adding: “You as well, f*** you as well.” Hackford was seen repeatedly telling the man to leave them alone.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism described the incident as “absolutely appalling,” saying Britain had reached a point where public figures could be “screamed at and abused simply for being perceived as being sympathetic to the world’s only Jewish state.”
Most recently, Mirren was among a group of prominent figures including Gene Simmons, Mila Kunis, Scooter Braun, Amy Schumer and Sharon Osbourne who signed an open letter supporting Israel’s participation in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest — a move that came after musicians including Paul Weller, Kneecap and Massive Attack signed a separate letter calling for a boycott.
Mirren’s connection to Israel is long-standing and well-documented. She first visited in 1967 shortly after the Six-Day War, volunteering on Kibbutz HaOn near the Sea of Galilee and travelling independently around the region. She has consistently opposed cultural boycotts of Israel, arguing that abandoning the country’s artistic community would be counterproductive, and in 2023 portrayed Golda Meir — Israel’s only female prime minister — in the biographical film Golda. Despite her support for Israel’s right to exist, she has also previously expressed concern about certain aspects of the Israeli government’s political direction, making clear her position is nuanced rather than unconditional.
The incident arrives against a backdrop of rising antisemitic incidents in Britain. In March and April 2026, a series of attacks targeting London’s Jewish community took place involving arson, explosive devices and chemicals, directed at Jewish schools, synagogues and charities. Among them was the destruction of four Hatzola ambulances by arson in the car park of Machzike Hadath synagogue in Golders Green, with CCTV showing three hooded individuals pouring accelerant on the vehicles before fleeing.
Dame Helen Mirren’s representatives had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
