The 19-year-old American singer, Billie Eilish is no doubt a big star. With six Grammy awards and a huge arsenal of fans, she has proven herself as a pop culture star.
Her wide and crucial influence can be considered an authority, hence making her responsible for what she promotes on a political and social scale.
Amongst a wave of boycotting apartheid Israel, Billie Elish says “Hi Israel”
Promoting her new album, ‘Happier Than Ever,’ Eilish made several videos addressing her fans in several countries and amongst these videos was one in which she addressed her fans in the Palestinian-occupied-lands.
“Hi Israel, this is Billie Eilish, and I’m so excited that my new album, ‘Happier Than Ever,’ is out now,” she said in a clip posted to her Tik Tok.
The singer faced a lot of criticism on social media for acknowledging Israel’s existence through the innocuous greeting.
Some of the commenters accused her of supporting Israel.
One responder wrote: “Educate yourself and see what Israel are doing for Palestinian children.”
Another wrote: “Billie, it’s occupied Palestinian land, not Israel.”
Another tweeted Eilish trying to describe the pain of being a Palestinian citizen living in continuous alienation as their home has become an occupied territory where its natives are not safe.
Eilish’s second album, ‘Happier Than Ever,’ one of the most anticipated pop releases of the year, was distributed in Israel by Universal Music Group.
A big wave of criticism has been pointed at Israel since its recent attacks on Gaza where Israel is still bombing civilian areas, directing the military aggression on Palestinians and killing so many men, children and women in one of its sparkles of ethnic cleansing towards Palestinian people.
Big celebrities like supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid, the Hollywood stars Rihanna, Trevor Noah, Mark Ruffalo and Lena Headey have spoken against the attacks on Palestinians.
Bella and Gigi Hadid
Models Bella and Gigi Hadid have voiced their support for Palestine amid tensions that arose in the recent conflict with Israel. The supermodels spoke out against the violence on their social media.
“This is not about religion. This is not about spewing hate on one or the other. This is about Israeli colonisation, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!”
“I stand with my Palestinian brothers and sisters, I will protect and support you as best as I can. I LOVE YOU,” Bella wrote.
Rihanna
Rihanna publicly shared her opinion about the conflict. She used her 103-follower Instagram account to shed light about Israel-Palestine violence and said that she stands with humanity.
“I stand with humanity! this ain’t it y’all!” the pop star said in a long post on her social media platform.
“My heart is breaking with the violence I’m seeing displayed between Israel and Palestine! I can’t bare to see it! Innocent Israeli and Palestinian children are hiding in bomb shelters, over 40 lives lost in Gaza alone, at least 13 of whom were also innocent children!” the post said.
Trevor Noah
Comedian and televsion host Trevor Noah opened up about the violence discussing the hassle of the current conflict with deep insights and think-about-it questions.
“If you start from ‘Israel fired rockets into Gaza,’ then Israel is the bad guy, because they’re bombing Gaza,” Noah explained. “But then you take a step back in time, and you go, ‘Well, but Hamas fired rockets at Israel.’ Then Hamas is the bad guy. But then you take a step back, and you go, ‘But the Israeli police went in and started beating people up in a mosque during Ramadan, the most holy time in the Muslim calendar.’ Well then, Israel is the bad guy,” he said.
“I just want to ask an honest question here,” Noah said. “If you are in a fight where the other person cannot beat you, how much should you retaliate when they try to hurt you?”
“Everyone has a different answer to the question, and I’m not trying to answer the question, nor do I think I’m smart enough to solve it. All I ask is, when you have this much power, what is your responsibility?”