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Helen Mirren Called 'Evil Zionist' in London Street
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Footage of the 81-year-old actress being abused near Tower Hill went viral in May
Video footage of Dame Helen Mirren being verbally abused as an 'evil Zionist' in a London street circulated widely on social media in May. The Metropolitan Police reviewed the footage as potential antisemitic abuse but took no further action after speaking to Mirren and her husband.
The incident happened in the Tower Hill area of London at the end of 2025, according to police. The video shows a man filming himself as he approaches Mirren, 81, and her husband, the American film director Taylor Hackford, also 81, at night.
'It's Helen Mirren, the avowed Zionist', the man says to camera, in footage reported by The Guardian and shared on Instagram. He goes on: 'She said, "Israel should last forever because of the Holocaust." And she was very happy the Palestinians' houses were gone. You're an evil Zionist bitch.' He then turns on Hackford: 'And you and all. F––k you and all.'
Mirren stayed calm throughout, initially asking the man if he was okay. Hackford told him to 'f––k off'.
What the man claimed she said
Mirren did say in a 2023 interview that she believes in Israel 'because of the Holocaust' and supports its existence. But the claim that she was 'very happy the Palestinians' houses were gone' was the man's own characterisation. It is not a verified quote from Mirren.
There is an absolute, shameless orgy of antisemitism, overtaking the west.
Mirren is not Jewish. She has played several Jewish characters, including former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in the 2023 film Golda, and has publicly opposed cultural boycotts of Israel.
How Mirren has responded
Mirren addressed the incident at the Taormina Film Festival in June, in comments reported by Variety. She described the man as possibly 'over passionate or maybe mentally not quite stable' and spoke of rising 'evil forces'. She restated her belief in Israel's right to exist after the Holocaust.
The Hungarian director László Nemes, who won an Oscar for Son of Saul, told The Guardian on 18 May that there is an 'absolute, shameless orgy of antisemitism, overtaking the west', speaking about attitudes to Jewish-themed films.
What the figures show
The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism and provides security advice to Britain's Jewish community, recorded 4,298 antisemitic incidents in 2023, the highest annual total on record. It recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025 and 1,926 in the first half of 2026, up 21% on the same period in 2025 and the second-highest half-year figure on record.
That compares with roughly 1,662 incidents in 2022, before the current conflict began.
CST is due to publish its next full set of incident figures in early 2027. No further action is expected over the Mirren video.
