Short answer: As of July 2026, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a consistent, publicly vocal supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, though he is not Jewish himself (his father was a Nazi party member, a fact Schwarzenegger has directly confronted in public speeches). Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack he has repeatedly voiced support for Israel on social media, personally hosted and comforted families of Israeli hostages, and campaigned against antisemitism, including in a video message following his 2022 visit to Auschwitz. He has also separately said Palestinians "have the right to have their own country," a two-state-solution view that runs alongside, not against, his pro-Israel statements.
What Arnold Schwarzenegger has actually said and done
- March 2023: Schwarzenegger posted a roughly 12-minute video after visiting Auschwitz, condemning rising antisemitism and directly referencing his own father Gustav's Nazi party membership, calling him a "broken man." The Simon Wiesenthal Center publicly thanked him for the message, as reported by CBS News.
- October 9, 2023: Two days after the Hamas attack on Israel, he wrote on X: "I stand with my Israeli friends in the face of these unprovoked, barbaric terrorist attacks. My heart breaks when I turn on the news and see this pain and suffering," per his own verified account.
- October 2023: In a separate interview that same month, he also said, "The Palestinians have the right to live, the Palestinians have the right to have their own country... they have to learn to live next to each other," while affirming Israel's equal right to exist, as documented by SEE Check and Channel 4 News. This was framed as a call for negotiated coexistence, not a break from his support for Israel.
- December 1, 2023: He hosted and met with family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, presenting them with bronze eagle statues and telling them he considers himself "a big friend of the Jewish people and Israel" who wants "to be there for them," according to the Jerusalem Post and TMZ.
- December 11, 2023: Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and a friend of Schwarzenegger's for over 40 years, wrote in the Jerusalem Post that Schwarzenegger is "a loyal friend to the State of Israel and the Jewish people," singling out the hostage-family event as "one of his finest moments."
- March 6, 2023: In the same week the Auschwitz video went out, he addressed Stockton University warning that antisemitism is a "horrible loser ideology" that never succeeds, as covered by the Jewish Community Voice.
His story with the Jewish people, and where it comes from
Schwarzenegger is not Jewish, and his connection to Jewish causes did not come from personal heritage. It came from decades of relationships, most visibly with leadership at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and from his own public reckoning with his father Gustav's membership in the Nazi party, something he has addressed repeatedly, most notably in a video message released in March 2023 following his September 2022 visit to Auschwitz. That reckoning appears to have shaped a sustained personal commitment: when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, he did not wait to comment. He posted his solidarity the next day, and two months later he was in a room with the families of hostages, not issuing a statement through a publicist but meeting them directly. Rabbi Marvin Hier, who has known him for four decades, has vouched for him publicly as a loyal friend of Israel and the Jewish people.
His support for Palestinian statehood, voiced in that same October 2023 stretch, sits alongside this record rather than against it. It is a standard position among many pro-Israel Western public figures who favor a negotiated two-state coexistence, and it was reported alongside his affirmation that Israel has the same right to exist. No reputable reporting found indicates he has donated large sums specifically to Israeli causes, joined any boycott of Israel, or made statements hostile to Israel. His documented actions are personal and rhetorical, statements, hostage-family meetings, and antisemitism speeches, rather than commercial partnerships or public donations to Israeli organizations. No new, dated Israel-related activity was found specifically in 2025 or 2026 beyond his continued general antisemitism advocacy.
The bottom line
Yes: Arnold Schwarzenegger supports Israel. His public record since October 7, 2023 shows consistent solidarity statements, direct engagement with hostage families, and sustained anti-antisemitism advocacy, all independently corroborated across mainstream and Jewish outlets. His stated support for Palestinian statehood is a separate, coexistence-oriented position and does not undercut that record.
Wear your own answer
Whatever brought you to this page, showing where you stand does not require a public speech. Our Support Israel collection and pieces like the I Stand With Israel bracelet let you carry that same solidarity Schwarzenegger voiced, quietly, every day, without waiting for anyone else to ask where you stand.
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
