“The thing I couldn’t say two years ago, I’m now saying with a camera crew behind me,” the “Legally Blonde” actress added. “It goes to Israel, so people can see why that land is not an abstraction to us. And it talks to people who disagree with me, on camera, and keeps the disagreement in the cut, because you don’t change a mind by only talking to people who already agree with you.”

Blair was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018 and has been an activist for those living with the neurological disorder. She was the subject of the 2021 Discovery+ documentary “Introducing, Selma Blair,” which focuses on her MS diagnosis. In October 2023, she joined then-US President Joe Biden at a ceremony to honor the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act.

In February 2024, Blair apologized for posting on social media a comment about US Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rashida Talib (D-MI). She had written at the time: “Thank you so much. Deport all these terrorist supporting goons. Islam has destroyed Muslim countries and then they come here and destroyed minds. They know they are liars. Twisted justifications. May they meet their fate.” She left the comment on an Instagram post about Israel’s military actions in response to the deadly Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“It offended people, and I did apologize right away. No conditions, no fine print. I meant it then and I mean it now, and I’m leaving the comment there, because the comment was not the story,” the “Cruel Intentions” star said on Thursday, talking about what happened almost three years ago. She added that after the incident, she lost her team that supported her acting career, including her talent agency of 30 years CAA, and she was cancelled in Hollywood. Blair lost brand deals and payment for a Super Bowl advertisement, and even her son’s godmother distanced herself from the actress.

“The brands I worked with were gone within a day. A few partnerships I’d spent years building were shelved,” Blair explained. “My agency was gone. My lawyer was gone. My publicist was gone. My book agent was gone. My book publicist was gone. My social media manager was gone. My son’s godmother was gone – my best friend. While some friends in the business quietly stood by me, most of them were gone. And of course, my manager, my supposed friend of 30 years, and a Jew, was gone too. I still don’t know what any of them were thinking. No one returned my calls. I know the phone stopped. Not rang less. Just stopped.”

“Everyone whose job it was to protect me was gone, blocked me, and I was standing in the backyard saying the Shema [prayer] and wondering whether I’d imagined the last 25 years,” she continued. Blair said she eventually managed to bounce back and has started working again, but she was traumatized by the backlash she faced.

The Detroit native, who went to Hillel Day School and said she could read Hebrew before English, has been public about her support for Israel. During her speak on Thursday, she alluded to the recent Israel-“Palestine” controversy involving musicians Ed Sheeran and Macklemore. Without naming names, Blair referenced anti-Israel actor Javier Bardem and him sharing on social media a petition that called for Jewish pop singer Pink to be removed as a UNICEF ambassador for kids because she criticized Macklemore for making anti-Israel statements on stage while opening for Sheeran on his US tour.

“Her crime was objecting, out loud, when another performer railed against Israel from a stage,” Blair said on Thursday, seemingly defending Pink. “She didn’t ask for anyone to lose anything. Not a job, not a stage, nothing. She said what she thought. And for saying what she thought, a movie star spent his week trying to get her canceled.”

“Nothing will happen to him. He’ll keep working. He’ll keep getting applauded,” Blair continued, alluding to Bardem. “I made one post, apologized right away, and lost, overnight, everything I’d spent my adult life building. I’m not comparing wounds. I’m pointing at the scale. One direction gets you a petition and a shrug. The other gets you erased. You don’t need a law degree to see which way the erasing runs.”

“Antisemitism has to stop. Not be managed. Not be explained. Not be weighed against something else. Stop,” Blair said in conclusion. “Two years ago, the phone stopped. Tonight I’m the one talking, in a room full of my own people, saying the thing out loud. I’m a Jew. I’m still here. Hineni.”