Did American actress Angelina Jolie in 2024 call on the world to "unite against Israel"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no evidence corroborating the claim. This phrase has been falsely attributed to Jolie since at least 2006, according to Lead Stories' research. That's 17 years before the current Hamas-Israel war began in 2023. The quote was not part of a 2023 statement Jolie made condemning the violence in Gaza that followed Hamas' October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
The claim reappeared in an image post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on February 14, 2024. The post's text asked:
Who loves Angelina Jolie?
The post shared an image with a photo of the actress and the following quote attributed to her:
'Arabs and Mulims arenot terrorists.Theworld should uniteagainst Israel.'- ANGELINA JOLIE
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
The post implied that the alleged statement was recent and that it was made in the context of the ongoing Hamas-Israel war.
However, Google showed no credible sources (archived here) reporting that in 2024.
The quote from the post on X has been falsely attributed to the actress for over 17 years. Lead Stories found examples of the same claim dating back to July 2016, August 2014, January 2009 and August 2006. None of those entries specified where and when Jolie supposedly called on the world to unite against Israel. Lead Stories found no credible reports (archived here) ever corroborating the claim.
On October 28, 2023, Jolie, who spent two decades (archived here) working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, did comment on the Hamas-Israel war on her Instagram account (archived here.) However, in that remark, she did not say what was attributed to her in the post on X.
Here are the screenshots of Jolie's authentic statement (click to view larger):
(Sources: Instagram screenshots taken on Fri Feb 16 17:15:32 2024 UTC; on Fri Feb 16 17:15:43 2024 UTC; on Fri Feb 16 12:17:00 2024 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
While expressing concern about civilian deaths, Jolie also said that she had spent weeks "sick and angry" after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and that she was praying for the "immediate, safe return of every hostage" taken to Gaza. In fact, the actress specifically described that attack as "terrorist."
Contrary to the claim on X, Jolie made no call to "unite against Israel."
Lead Stories contacted the actress' public relations representatives for additional comments. If we get a response, this article will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the Hamas-Israel war can be found here. You can read our debunks of claims about the entertainment industry here.
