Short answer: Neil Gaiman is not a pro-Israel activist, but he has repeatedly and publicly affirmed Israel's right to exist alongside a Palestinian state, he was the guest of honor at Israel's ICon science fiction festival in 2006 and returned to the same Tel Aviv festival again after mid-2023, and he has declined to walk back his position even after pro-Palestinian boycott campaigns labeled him "Zionist." As of August 2026, that is the full, verifiable record.
What Neil Gaiman has actually said and done
- Autumn 2006: Gaiman was the guest of honor at ICon, Israel's annual science fiction and fantasy convention, held at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque alongside the 10th anniversary of the Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The Jerusalem Post, writing about a later guest of honor, notes that the same seat had previously been occupied by Gaiman.
- 2015: Gaiman wrote on social media, "I think Israel has the right to exist. I think Palestine needs to be a country, or Palestinians need full Israeli citizenship," a two-state position rather than blanket pro-Israel advocacy, as he later quoted himself on his own Tumblr.
- October 17, 2023: After that 2015 comment resurfaced amid the Israel-Hamas war, Gaiman confirmed on Tumblr that his position had not changed: Israel has a right to exist, Palestine should be recognized as a state, and he stood against killing and for refugees and children.
- After July 2023: Gaiman posted his own photos from "the first day of Icon festival in Tel Aviv" on Tumblr, showing fan cosplay of Good Omens characters including Muriel, a character who only appeared in the show's July 2023 second season. That confirms he returned to Israel's ICon fan festival again well after his 2006 guest-of-honor appearance, a detail corroborated by the festival's own Wikipedia entry.
- Spring 2024: A crowd-sourced spreadsheet that classified authors as "Zionist" or "pro-Palestinian" and urged readers to boycott the "Zionist" ones listed Gaiman with an orange "Zionist-leaning" tag, citing his 2015 statement. The list circulated widely on social media, as reported by Ground News.
- Ongoing: Gaiman is of Polish-Jewish and Ashkenazi family background. His mother, Sheila Gaiman (nee Goldman), was Jewish, and his grandfather anglicized the family name from Chaiman to Gaiman after settling in Portsmouth, England, per Wikipedia.
The fuller picture
Neil Gaiman, born November 10, 1960, is the British-American author behind Coraline, Good Omens, American Gods, and The Sandman. He is alive and active as of 2026. Separately from the Israel question, Gaiman has faced serious sexual misconduct allegations since 2024, first reported in detail by Tortoise Media and New York Magazine with follow-up coverage from outlets including the Jerusalem Post. That matter is unrelated to his position on Israel and is not the subject of this page.
On Israel specifically, Gaiman has no record of political activism, donations, or organizational involvement. His public position rests on one 2015 social media statement, which he reaffirmed word for word in October 2023: Israel has a right to exist, and Palestinians deserve statehood or full citizenship. That is closer to a standard two-state view than to pro-Israel advocacy. His clearest tie to Israel is cultural, not political. He was ICon Tel Aviv's guest of honor in 2006 and returned to that same fan festival again after mid-2023, which points to a genuine, ongoing relationship with Israeli science fiction fandom specifically. After October 7, 2023, pro-Palestinian boycott campaigns, including a widely circulated 2024 spreadsheet, tagged him "Zionist" for refusing to disavow his 2015 comments, and some fans called for boycotting his books over it. Gaiman did not change his position in response.
The bottom line
Gaiman is not a pro-Israel spokesperson, and he has never framed himself as one. But he has consistently, on the record, defended Israel's right to exist, he has a real and repeated relationship with Israeli fandom through ICon Tel Aviv, and he refused to bend to a boycott campaign built specifically to pressure him off that position. That is a measured, two-state stance held under public pressure, not silence and not activism.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
