Short answer: No. John Oliver has been consistently and publicly critical of Israel, not supportive. On his HBO show Last Week Tonight he has repeatedly accused Israel of apartheid, of illegal and immoral settlement building, and of deliberately starving Gaza, and he has sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is alive and still hosting the show. As of August 2026, nothing in the public record points the other way.
What John Oliver has actually said and done
October 15, 2023: In a rare serious cold open, Oliver told viewers he would not cover the Israel-Hamas war in the main body of that week's episode because the news was too "horrific" and fast-moving, noting the episode had been taped Saturday afternoon and much could change by air time, according to AOL/Yahoo.
November 12, 2023: Oliver devoted a full segment, titled "Israel-Hamas War," to the conflict, calling for a ceasefire as the necessary first step toward peace and urging viewers to begin any conversation about the war "with empathy." The segment was criticized by some Jewish commentators, including actor Jon Lovitz, who argued its criticism of U.S. support for Israel gave too little weight to Hamas's October 7 atrocities, as reported by the Algemeiner and HonestReporting.
July 28, 2024: In an episode titled "West Bank Settlements," Oliver called Israeli settlement building in the West Bank "illegal" and "immoral" and described the system governing Palestinians there as "apartheid," per the Algemeiner and the Jerusalem Post.
August 3, 2025: Oliver said on air that "Gaza is starving" was "too passive," arguing instead that "Gaza is being starved by Israel," and called for an end to U.S. complicity in Israel's blockade, citing human rights organizations, according to Breitbart and Ynetnews.
September 28, 2025: Oliver devoted nearly a full episode to Netanyahu, calling him a "desperate SOB," and criticizing at length his conduct of the war and his military strikes across the region, citing a poll showing only 21 percent of Americans view Netanyahu favorably, as reported by Yahoo News and Haaretz.
September 30, 2025: Haaretz reported that HBO Max in Israel did not carry that Netanyahu-focused episode, making it unavailable for streaming inside Israel even as it aired in the United States, per Haaretz.
The bigger picture
John Oliver is a British-American comedian and the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, a weekly news-satire program known for long-form investigative segments. He was born and raised in Britain, raised Anglican and by his own account lapsed, and is not Jewish; he has no personal Jewish-identity connection to the Israel story. He is married to Kate Norley, an American Iraq War veteran.
Oliver's public record on Israel is one of sustained, sharp criticism rather than support. In the immediate aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack he initially paused substantive comment because of how raw the news was, then in November 2023 called for a ceasefire in a segment that some Jewish commentators said gave too little weight to the hostages and the attack itself. By mid-2024 his position had hardened into direct accusations, with a full episode in July 2024 calling West Bank settlement policy illegal and immoral and describing the system there as apartheid. Through 2025 the criticism intensified further, including an August 2025 segment arguing Israel was actively starving Gaza's population and a September 2025 episode devoted almost entirely to attacking Netanyahu's conduct of the war, his coalition partners' rhetoric, and his corruption trial. That September episode reportedly did not stream on HBO Max in Israel.
One minor, non-political data point sometimes surfaces in searches: Oliver canceled a planned January 2017 trip to Israel tied to an HBO/Hot cable-TV launch event, but reporting attributes this to production scheduling conflicts, not a boycott or political statement, and it predates the current war by years. No evidence was found of Oliver making personal donations to Israeli causes, attending pro-Israel events, or expressing any Jewish-identity connection. His public record is exclusively critical commentary delivered through his show.
The bottom line
John Oliver does not support Israel in any public sense. His documented record from October 2023 through September 2025 consists of escalating on-air criticism of Israeli government policy, its conduct of the Gaza war, and Netanyahu personally, including explicit use of the word "apartheid." There is no countervailing evidence of pro-Israel statements, donations, or event appearances.
Wear where you stand
Whatever a late-night host says on a given Sunday, plenty of people still want a simple, visible way to say where they stand on Israel. Our Support Israel collection has pieces for that, including the I Stand With Israel Bracelet, a small, everyday way to show solidarity without saying a word.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
