Short answer: As of July 2026, there is no record of Antoine Griezmann ever publicly declaring support for Israel, and none of him speaking against it either. He is not Jewish (he is a practicing Roman Catholic) and has no known personal ties to Israel or to Jewish communities. The one concrete, documented engagement is athletic rather than political: in May 2019 he traveled to Jerusalem with Atletico Madrid for an end-of-season friendly against Beitar Jerusalem and scored a penalty at Teddy Stadium. On the war that began in October 2023, he has stayed publicly silent.
What Antoine Griezmann has actually said and done
- December 17, 2017: Griezmann posts a blackface photo captioned "80's party," which he described as a tribute to the Harlem Globetrotters. It drew international backlash, and he deleted the image and apologized, as reported by Times of Israel and ESPN. It has nothing to do with Israel, but it shows a player who does respond to public pressure on social questions.
- July 15, 2018: Griezmann wins the FIFA World Cup with France, scoring in the final, per Wikipedia. This is the achievement that gave him a global platform.
- May 21, 2019: Griezmann travels to Jerusalem with Atletico Madrid for a post-season friendly against Beitar Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium. He comes on as a substitute for Koke and scores Atletico's goal from the penalty spot in a 2-1 loss, according to the ESPN match record and Atletico Madrid's official site. This is his one documented direct engagement with Israel.
- May 23, 2019: The Jerusalem Post covers the visit as "a triumph for everyone," describing Griezmann and his teammates as "just as excited to be in the Holy Land this week as the Israeli public was to host them." The framing is tourism and goodwill, not a political endorsement.
- December 10, 2020: Griezmann ends his brand-ambassador partnership with Huawei over allegations that the company helped develop "Uyghur alert" facial-recognition software targeting a Muslim minority in China, as reported by BBC News and ESPN. This is the clearest example of his human-rights activism, and it concerns China and the Uyghurs, not Israel.
- October 7, 2023 and after: Following the Hamas attack and throughout the ensuing war, Griezmann has issued no public statement on Israel, Gaza, or the conflict. No reputable outlet records any comment, donation, or appearance by him tied to either side, a silence that Shop Israel has tracked through July 2026 (Shop Israel).
Catholic, not Jewish, and one visit to Jerusalem
Antoine Griezmann is a French footballer, born in 1991, a 2018 World Cup winner with France and a longtime Atletico Madrid forward. Multiple profiles describe him as a practicing Roman Catholic with religious tattoos (Jesus, the Virgin Mary, rosary beads) and of German and Portuguese family descent. There is no evidence of Jewish heritage or of any personal connection to Judaism or to Israel.
His signature human-rights stand was cutting ties with Huawei in December 2020 over the surveillance of Uyghur Muslims in China, an issue that has nothing to do with the Middle East. On Israel specifically, the only hard, documented engagement is the sporting one: the May 2019 friendly at Beitar Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium, where he played and scored. A club friendly, even one warmly received by Israeli fans and media, is a business and tourism fixture rather than a declaration of political support. The "Griezmann Israel or Palestine" chatter that circulates on TikTok, along with the occasional hostile fan tweet, does not come from Griezmann and carries no evidentiary weight. There is likewise no record of him joining any BDS or sports-boycott effort against Israel, and no record of him publicly refusing one.
The bottom line
Griezmann has never publicly declared support for Israel, but he is not hostile to it either. The record is essentially neutral, with one friendly data point in Israel's favor: he willingly played and scored in Jerusalem in 2019, a visit Israeli media welcomed. He is Catholic rather than Jewish, has no personal ties to Israel, and has stayed silent on the war since October 2023. Anyone claiming that he is either pro-Israel or anti-Israel is reading into a public record that, on the political question, is genuinely silent.
Support Israel directly
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
