Short answer: As of August 2026, Stacey Abrams's record on Israel is mixed, and it has shifted since October 7, 2023. She has never joined or endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has past statements backing Israel's right to exist and defend itself. But her public commentary since the war began has leaned critical of the Israeli government, culminating in a November 2025 podcast episode on her own show that accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of eroding Israeli democracy and repeated "genocide" language about the Gaza campaign.
What Stacey Abrams has actually said and done
March 22, 2016: As Georgia House Minority Leader, Abrams voted against Senate Bill 327, the state's anti-BDS contracting bill, which passed 95-71 anyway. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Forward, she said she personally opposed BDS but objected to using state contracting law to police political boycotts, citing free-speech grounds and the historic role of boycotts in the civil rights movement.
March 16, 2018: During her run for Georgia governor, a group of Jewish community members published an open letter defending that 2016 vote as a free-speech position, not antisemitism, and describing her "unequivocal support for the state of Israel" along with her backing of a two-state solution that names Israel as the Jewish homeland.
2021: Abrams joined the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. About six months later, under her board tenure, the foundation's 2021 "Freedom Scholars" cohort included a $250,000 grant to UCLA professor Robin D.G. Kelley, a BDS-aligned academic who had praised the PLO in a 2016 essay. Both the Washington Free Beacon and World Israel News reported the grant, but neither could establish that Abrams was personally involved in selecting it.
November 5, 2023: In a televised interview covered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Abrams called for more humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, said Israel must be "able to defend itself but also held accountable for the humanitarian cost," and said a ceasefire "is one of the tools that could be considered."
April 26, 2024: After police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emory University, Abrams wrote on X that "nonviolent civil disobedience should not strip you of constitutional protections" and that "repressive tactics" are not signs of a healthy democracy, according to The National Desk. She sided with the campus protesters against the police response rather than commenting on the substance of the protests themselves.
November 6, 2025: Abrams's own podcast, "Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams," released an episode titled "Gaza Under Siege: Netanyahu's Use of Violence to Maintain Power." Per Crooked Media and the episode's Apple Podcasts listing, its official description said Netanyahu had "overseen the erosion of Democracy in his country" alongside "a war that experts and allies across the globe, and across the political spectrum have labeled as genocide." Guests included journalist Rula Jebreal and Senator Chris Van Hollen discussing U.S.-Israel accountability.
January 2026: Abrams announced she would not run for Georgia governor in 2026, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she would instead focus outside elected office on countering what she called authoritarianism. She remains an active public figure as an author and podcast host.
How to read her record
Abrams's position has never fit a simple "for" or "against." Before October 2023, she presented as a fairly conventional pro-Israel Georgia Democrat: she opposed BDS as a movement even while voting against Georgia's anti-BDS contracting law on First Amendment grounds, she supported a two-state solution with Israel explicitly named as the Jewish homeland, and Jewish community leaders in Georgia publicly vouched for her during her 2018 gubernatorial run. She also traveled to Israel in 2011 through Project Interchange, a bipartisan educational trip program for American officials.
Since October 7, her public commentary has moved toward criticizing the Israeli government's conduct of the war rather than Israel's existence or legitimacy. She called for humanitarian aid and floated a ceasefire in late 2023, defended student protesters against police action in April 2024 on civil-liberties grounds, and most notably let her own podcast run an episode in November 2025 that directly accused Netanyahu of dismantling Israeli democracy and repeated "genocide" framing for the Gaza campaign. Separately, a cluster of conservative outlets reported in 2022 that a foundation she sits on the board of funded a BDS-aligned academic through a grant program announced roughly six months after she joined, though those same reports could not confirm she was personally involved in that decision. There is no indication of any personal Jewish-identity connection; her engagement with Israel has been political, not religious or ethnic.
The bottom line
Stacey Abrams does not fit a clean pro-Israel or anti-Israel label. She has never joined or endorsed BDS, and she has explicit past statements backing Israel's right to exist and defend itself. But her 2016 anti-BDS bill vote, her foundation board's proximity to a BDS-aligned academic's grant, and especially her November 2025 podcast episode accusing Netanyahu of eroding democracy and echoing "genocide" language show a clear post-October 7 shift toward criticizing the Israeli government specifically. If you are looking for a reliably pro-Israel public figure, Abrams's recent record does not support that read, even though she has stopped short of embracing anti-Israel activism outright.
Wearing where you stand
Public figures will keep landing in different places on Israel, and their positions can shift year to year. If you want your own support for Israel to be unambiguous, you do not have to wait on any politician or celebrity to say the right thing. Shop Israel's I Stand With Israel collection lets you say it plainly, with pieces like the I Stand With Israel bracelet built for daily wear.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
