Does Eddie Murphy Support Israel?

Maya Mizrachi Feb 25, 2025 Updated Jul 27, 2026 3 min read

Short answer: As of July 2026, there is no documented public record of Eddie Murphy taking a position on Israel. He has made no known public statements supporting or criticizing Israel, no known visits or performances there, no donations to Israeli or pro-Israel causes, no boycott participation or refusal, and no reported Jewish ancestry or identity connection. Searches across major outlets (JTA, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, general news) and general web search turned up zero results tying him to the Israel/Palestine conflict by name.

What Eddie Murphy has actually said and done

Here is every documented, sourced touchpoint between Eddie Murphy and Jewish-related media coverage, in chronological order. None of it addresses Israel directly.

November 9, 2011: Oscars producer Brett Ratner resigned as producer of that year's ceremony after using a gay slur in an interview. Ratner's resignation prompted Eddie Murphy, who was set to host, to step down as well. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) covered the episode because Ratner is Jewish, but the story has nothing to do with Israel.
January 27, 2023: Netflix released "You People," in which Murphy plays Akbar, a Nation of Islam father skeptical of his daughter's engagement to a secular Jewish man (played by Jonah Hill). JTA's coverage notes the film wades into Black-Jewish relations, including a debated line about American Jews and slavery and controversy over using a Kanye West song after his antisemitic remarks. Israel is not mentioned in the piece.
February 1, 2023: A JTA opinion piece, written by a Black, Mexican, and Jewish author, criticized "You People" for flattening Black and Jewish identity into caricature. Murphy's character is discussed only briefly, and Israel does not come up.
July 26, 2026: As part of fact-checking this profile, targeted searches of JTA's site index, Bing, and general web search for Eddie Murphy alongside Israel, Gaza, Hamas, October 7, BDS, boycott, ceasefire letters, Tel Aviv visits, or Jewish heritage returned no matching articles or records.

Jewish identity and the industry-Israel conversation

Eddie Murphy, born April 3, 1961, was raised in a mixed Baptist and Catholic household and has no reported Jewish ancestry. Since the war following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, many entertainment figures have been drawn into the conflict's public conversation, whether by signing one of the competing open letters circulated in Hollywood, making statements at award shows, visiting Israel, or facing boycott calls. Murphy has not appeared in any of that reporting. He has not signed a ceasefire-focused letter or a pro-Israel industry statement that reporters have tracked, has not performed or appeared in Israel, and has not been reported as a donor to Israeli or pro-Israel organizations.

His one substantive connection to Jewish-related themes in the press is "You People," and it is worth being precise about what that film actually is: a story about American Black-Jewish relations and antisemitism within that specific domestic context. It does not address Israel, and treating it as evidence of Murphy's views on Israel would overstate what the film and its coverage show.

The bottom line

There is no evidence, positive or negative, that Eddie Murphy has ever taken a public stance on Israel. He simply is not a figure in that conversation: no statements, no visits, no donations, no boycott activity, and no Jewish-identity connection have surfaced in reputable coverage through July 2026. That is a fair, documented answer, not a guess, and it may change as the record develops.

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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.