Noah Schnapp Breaks Silence on Israel-Hamas War Amid Cancel Calls

After remaining silent while people online were calling for him to be canceled, Noah Schnapp has finally shared his current thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war.

On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking another 240 captive. Israel subsequently fired airstrikes on Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, before launching a ground offensive into the area. As of January 15, 24,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed, The Associated Press reported.

The 19-year-old Stranger Things actor, who is Jewish, came under fire last autumn due to his remarks about the ongoing conflict, with fans threatening to skip Season 5 over his behavior.

This included a clip that circulated online of him with stickers that read "Zionism is Sexy."

Zionism refers to the Jewish nationalist movement formed in 1897 that pushed to create a state for Jewish people in Palestine. It eventually led to the creation of Israel in 1948, following the Holocaust. However, some critics of Zionism have argued that it forced Palestinians off their land.

While he has remained relatively silent over the issue in recent months, in a video posted on TikTok late Monday night, the actor said he "just wanted to come on here super briefly to discuss everything that's been going on online."

Newsweek reached out to Schnapp's publicist for further comment via email Tuesday.

"I feel like my thoughts and beliefs have been so far misconstrued from anything even close to what I believe and I wanted to just state from my heart how I feel," he said in the video uploaded to TikTok. "I only want peace and safety and security for all innocent people affected by this conflict. I've had many open discussions with friends from Palesti—Palestinian background and I think those are very important conversations to have and I've learned a lot.

"One of the takeaways I've had is that we all hope for the same things. That being [that] those innocent people still being held hostage in Gaza to be returned to their families and equally hope for an end to the loss of innocent life in Palestine, so many of those people being women and children, and it's horrible to see."

Schnapp went on to say that he thinks that anyone with "any ounce of humanity" would be hoping for "an end to the hostility on both sides." He said he is also against any innocent people being killed.

He continued: "And I just hope to one day see those two groups to be able to live harmoniously together in that region. And I hope for 2024 online to see people be a little more understanding and compassionate and recognize that we're all human regardless of our race, of our ethnicity, of our background, of our country of birth, even of our sexuality of anything.

"We are all human and we're all the same and we should all love each other for that and support each other and stand together. And stand together for humanity and for peace."

Schnapp has found himself under fire a number of times since the news of Hamas' attack broke. He faced cancellation calls when his initial statement on the Israel-Hamas conflict—which included the words "You either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism"—caused furor. The post has since been deleted but Schnapp lost more than 491,000 social media followers in less than two weeks.

The actor faced backlash again when he interacted with a video by Israeli actor Noa Tishby, which some have regarded as Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+. Schnapp liked the Instagram clip, which originated on the Israeli satire show Eretz Nehederet.

Schnapp's TikTok video came after one Stranger Things cast member confirmed they won't be coming back to the show. During an appearance on the Steve Varley Show, Eduardo Franco revealed that he never got a call to return for the final season. Franco debuted in Season 4 as Argyle, a character who provided some much-needed comic relief to the show's heavier storylines.

After the interview went live, Stranger Things fans took to social media to complain that while Franco was cut from the final season, Schnapp and Brett Gelman will still be featured.

Newsweek contacted Netflix via email for comment Tuesday.

In October, Gelman slammed Palestinian supporters, Generation Z and "fake woke liberals" on Instagram, saying: "You don't read. No, no, no."

In a follow-up video, the 47-year-old asked "fake woke liberal Americans" to guess "who actually lives on stolen land?"

"You do you, me Jew," he continued. "You live on stolen land."

Schnapp plays Will Byers, whose Season 1 kidnapping was the catalyst for the show's narrative, while Gelman stars as conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman.

"But They Have 2 Zionists On There," said @ItsRandomWordss.

"One of the few POC (person of color) actors getting axed from the show but the Zionists get to stay," wrote Kach_i. "Why am I not surprised?"

"He (Franco) probably stood with Palestine and that Zionist-fested show wrote him out probably," claimed @Shadow_Strike2.

Update 01/16/24, 7:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include further detail and comment.