Short answer: Yes. Bernard-Henri Lévy, the French philosopher and public intellectual, is one of the most visible and consistent European defenders of Israel, especially since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. As of August 2026, he remains alive and active on this subject.
What Bernard Henri Levy has actually said and done
- 1967: Lévy, then 18, made his first trip to Israel, and when the Six-Day War broke out he rushed to the Israeli consulate in Paris seeking to join the fighting, as reported by Algemeiner.
- May 2010: Lévy was a founding signatory of JCall, a European Jewish initiative that argued unconditional support for Israeli government policy, including settlement expansion, does not serve Israel's real interests, and called for a two-state solution, according to Haaretz.
- October 8, 2023: The morning after the Hamas attack, Lévy flew from Paris to Israel, arriving in Sderot that evening, then visited attacked kibbutzim and the Nova festival massacre site in the following days to bear witness, as documented by the Times of Israel and JNS.
- September 2024: Lévy published the book "Israel Alone," built on his eyewitness account of the October 7 aftermath, arguing the West failed Israel morally by not standing firmly with it after the massacre, per its Simon & Schuster listing.
- July 9, 2026: In a Tel Aviv interview, Lévy called the West's diplomatic isolation of Israel since October 7 a "historic moral failure" representing "a defeat of humanity" and "the loss of any moral compass," and said antisemitism today is "unprecedented in my lifetime," according to JNS.
- July 9, 2026: Lévy delivered the closing address of the Contemporary Antisemitism Haifa 2026 conference at the University of Haifa, warning that antisemitism has "reinvented itself as a grand accusation" against Jews and Israel, while insisting "this battle is not lost," as reported by eJewishPhilanthropy.
Who is Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy was born November 5, 1948, in Béni Saf, French Algeria, to an affluent Sephardic (Algerian-Jewish) family that moved to Morocco after his birth and then to France in 1954, when he was six. He is a French philosopher, author, and filmmaker, Jewish by identity and heritage, though by his own account not religiously observant, saying he can barely read Hebrew. His connection to Israel dates back nearly six decades to 1967 and has combined firm advocacy for the country's right to exist with a long-standing, publicly stated preference for a two-state solution and criticism of Israeli settlement policy, a position he has held since at least his 2010 involvement with JCall. He is not a uniform defender of every Israeli government decision, but on the core question of Israel's legitimacy and its treatment since October 7, he has been consistently outspoken, traveling to the country the day after the attack and publishing a book on what he sees as the West's moral failure to stand with it. As of mid-2026 he continues speaking publicly against antisemitism and Israel's diplomatic isolation, including at the University of Haifa, and has noted he now rarely lectures in France for security reasons.
The bottom line
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a longtime, high-profile supporter of Israel's right to exist who has paired that support with advocacy for a two-state solution since at least 2010. He has been one of Europe's most consistent public voices defending Israel and warning about antisemitism since October 7, 2023, through his 2024 book "Israel Alone" and continued public appearances into 2026.
Wear the same conviction
Voices like Lévy's remind us that standing with Israel in public, in print, and in daily life is not a passing gesture but a sustained commitment. If his story moves you to say the same thing out loud, our I Stand With Israel collection offers a simple, everyday way to carry that conviction with you.
Related
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
