Short answer: As of July 2026, there is no public record of Ricky Gervais expressing support for Israel, and no record of him backing the Palestinian cause either. He has never visited Israel, made no known donations, issued no direct statement on the Israel/Palestine conflict, and signed neither the 2025 Hollywood film-boycott letter nor the counter-letter rejecting it. His only brushes with the topic are a 2014 tweet dismissing "what about Gaza?" replies to his animal-welfare posts and, in September 2025, reposting (then deleting) an old clip that mocks celebrities who make political speeches at award shows.
What Ricky Gervais has actually said and done
- August 4, 2014: Gervais posted on X (formerly Twitter): "After every animal welfare tweet I always get someone saying 'but what about Gaza?', like I gave them the choice to help only one cause." As his post on X shows, it was a dig at whataboutism, not a position on the conflict.
- January 5, 2020: Hosting the Golden Globes for the fifth time, Gervais told winners, "If you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a political platform to make a political speech," and joked about ISIS starting a streaming service. Per the full transcript published by The Hollywood Reporter, it was a general anti-political-speech stance with no Israel content.
- September 14, 2025: At the Emmy Awards, Hacks star Hannah Einbinder closed her acceptance speech with "Free Palestine," and other winners referenced Gaza, as Deadline reported. That set up Gervais's response the following day.
- September 15, 2025: Gervais reposted a clip of his 2020 Golden Globes line ("don't use it as a platform to make a political speech"), captioned "They're still not listening," along with the ISIS streaming joke, then deleted both posts. He stated no position on Israel or Palestine; the posts mocked political award-show speeches in general. Both Yahoo News and Deadline covered the deletion.
- September 2025: Two dueling Hollywood open letters circulated: an earlier Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge signed by thousands (Joaquin Phoenix, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo) and a September 25 counter-letter of more than 1,200 names rejecting it (Liev Schreiber, Mayim Bialik). As The Times of Israel reported, Gervais appeared on neither list.
Why people search for Ricky Gervais and Israel
Ricky Gervais (born June 25, 1961, in Reading, England) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and producer, best known for co-creating The Office and Extras and for his stand-up specials. He is not Jewish and has no reported Jewish heritage; his father was of Franco-Ontarian (French-Canadian) descent. Gervais is also one of entertainment's most prominent public atheists, and his commentary tends to center on atheism, science, free speech, and animal welfare rather than national or geopolitical causes.
On Israel specifically, the record is essentially silent: no visits, no donations, no event appearances, and no direct statement taking a side in the conflict. Repeated searches of reputable outlets across 2025 and 2026 turned up nothing. The only reason the pairing trends at all is adjacency. His recurring bit that celebrities should not make political speeches at award shows collided with the pro-Palestinian speeches at the September 2025 Emmys, which some read as an implicit swipe at those speakers rather than an endorsement of Israel. We also set aside an unverified online clip titled to suggest Gervais "condemns Netanyahu," because no reputable outlet corroborates any such statement.
The bottom line
Ricky Gervais has no public pro-Israel record, and no pro-Palestinian one either. He has never visited Israel, given no known statements, donations, or endorsements on the conflict, and stayed off both sides of the 2025 Hollywood boycott letters. The fair read is unaligned and largely silent: his September 2025 Emmys posts were about disliking political award-show speeches, not about backing Israel.
Wear your own answer
When a public figure stays silent, you do not have to. If you want your support to be visible and unmistakable, you can say it plainly with something you actually wear. Our I Stand With Israel collection puts the message front and center, from the simple I Stand With Israel bracelet to tees and hats, so your stance is never left to guesswork. Every order also supports Israeli small businesses and the makers behind them directly.
Related
Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
