Miriam Margolyes and David Baddiel clash over whether Jewish people should talk about Israel-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Miriam and David had different takes on Israel (Picture: ITV)

Miriam Margolyes and David Baddiel disagreed over Jewish people’s ‘connection’ to Israel in Channel 4 documentary David Baddiel: Jews Don’t Count.

The 75-minute-long special sees the comedian and writer explore why, in his opinion, anti-Semitism is often seen as a lesser form of racism as he meets with other Jewish stars including the Harry Potter actor and Friends legend David Schwimmer.

In one section of the one-off programme, Miriam, 81, and David, 58, were discussing the prevalence of antisemitism when the topic turned to the Western Asian country.

Sat in Miriam’s garden, the comedian remarked that his ‘younger’ and ‘quite left-wing’ fans had resolved to not feel ’embarrassed’ about recognising and pointing out anti-Semitism.

Miriam, however, responded: ‘We have to say the word Israel. Israel is at the root of all this. Israel is the problem.’

David replied: ‘Ok, so I disagree with that because anti-Semitism has roots that go back centuries and centuries and centuries.’

Miriam added: ‘No no, I agree with you. I would say anti-Semitism is naturally English but after the war you couldn’t express it. It was buried. Israel open pandora’s box and allowed what had been festering and simmering to come out.’

The Davids met up in New York in the documentary (Picture: Channel 4)

But David said he felt ‘no connection’ with Israel, adding that when followers write: ‘What about Palestine?’ after he tweets about anti-Semitism it is prejudice because ‘we have no collective responsibility as Jews for Israel.’

Miriam had a different take, adding: ‘I don’t agree with that because if you know bad things are being done by people to whom you are connected, strongly connected with, it is your duty to speak about it, to draw attention to it and try to change it.’

David made the documentary based on his book of the same name (Picture: Getty)

David asked: ‘In what way am I connected really to Israel? A country that feels foreign to me. I’m an atheist. I’m a European jew. I basically just think Israel smishIrael. I’m not that bothered with Israel. It seems to me racist that as Jew I have to be more bothered about it because that’s not a stricture imposed on any other minority.’

Miriam responded: ‘I think it’s wilful of you to deny connection because they are your people. They are my people.’

Miriam believes Jewish people are ‘connected’ to Israel (Picture: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

Miriam and David agreed to disagree but both said they felt that people weren’t afraid to be prejudiced towards them because ‘people don’t like Jews.’

Prior to the documentary landing on Channel 4, David announced he would quit Twitter to avoid racist hate. His account was active at the time of writing.

At a recent Q&A, he said: ‘What I will do when this film comes out, is come off and give my passwords to someone else. And that is about self-protection.’

‘I know this film will generate a lot of noise and some of it will be hate and some of it will definitely be anti-Semitic,’ he continued.

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‘It is like, why should I sit with that in my own house? It’s really horrible, but at the same time, I have also used social media as a way of calling out anti-Semitism and talking about anti-Semitism and reaching out to other Jews.

‘It’s complex to come off it completely because it does provide a voice.’

David Baddiel: Jews Don’t Count is available to stream on All4.

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