Hannah Einbinder Defends Palestinian Activism As 'Bare Minimum' Duty

Throughout her beloved five-season stint opposite Jean Smart on HBO Max's Hacks, Hannah Einbinder's celebrityhood has lent her a platform that she consistently uses to advocate social and political causes, ranging from environmental advocacy and artificial intelligence concerns to her prominent activism regarding Palestinian rights in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“I see it as the bare minimum,” Einbinder addressed The New Yorker Festival on Friday of her personal onus in having to talk about her convictions. “I think we are living in a time that is perhaps the worst point in human history. I think the threat of AI and climate [change] push us into that territory. And I know how many eyes I have on me. I know that difference that it can make. I know it from a financial perspective. I know that I can raise money. I have done it, and so I know that folks like myself and folks with even larger platforms can make tangible difference in the world. And for me, that’s been very specific to Palestine, and so knowing that, I don’t really see any other option.”

Hannah Einbinder Praises The Bravery Of Palestinian Journalists

“I started to attend IfNotNow vigils with my friends who were going, who were already anti-Zionists, and I found this amazing Jewish community and these Jewish spaces for me to go on a journey of unlearning the propaganda that we’re fed systemically,” Einbinder told The New Yorker‘s Rachel Syme. “And once I unlearned all of that, I realized I had to arm myself with a lot of knowledge and really go through, yeah, sort of a relearning period, and when I felt equipped, you know, I started to speak because I think when you see this for what it is, you cannot help — well, some people can, I guess. But I think that it was just so intrinsically tied to my values and my sense of justice, and I felt like I have to make up for lost time because I was complicit and unconscious in this system for so long, and I have to change my mind and I have to learn and grow, and so that’s what I’ve tried to do.”

Einbinder also raved about the surge of bold new voices arising from Palestine.

“There are these scenes that I think of that I saw happen when I think of him,” Einbinder talked about Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in August of 2025. “I feel like I watched this man’s life unfold, and Israel assassinated him. They knew that he and other journalists were sleeping in a tent, and they killed him because his voice was so powerful, and he had a beautiful daughter and a newborn son, and he risked his life to tell the truth about Israel’s crimes, and he was killed for that, and he was killed for being Palestinian.”

She insisted that her outspoken attitude on the genocide is just the minimum, compared to the heinous atrocities that have rocked Palestine.

“When I speak about Palestine, when I say it’s the bare minimum, there is nothing on earth that I could ever lose or ever sacrifice. It would be a drop in the bucket to measure up to the most incredible human beings I have ever witnessed in my life and the sacrifices that they have made, so I want to draw attention to journalists like Anas and so many like him who were silenced. We are still here, and we have an obligation to tell their stories,” Einbinder said. “All of us have a responsibility, especially as Americans who are complicit as taxpayers whose money goes to fund the genocide. We have a responsibility to speak and not to stop until the genocide is ended.”

Her comments were met with a wave of applause.