British actor and Harry Potter famed star Emma Watson recently shared a pro-Palestinian post on Instagram that sparked a wildfire of criticism, including from an Israeli minister.
The post, said to be anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic, has a lengthy caption derived from an excerpt by Australian scholar Sara Ahmed, along with a picture that reads “Solidarity is a verb”. The post has garnered over a million likes and comments, with many users commenting with Palestinian flags along with “free Palestine” slogans.
Despite most comments being encouraging, many other users did not seem to agree with the post, with one user writing “another celebrity with little to no education on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, wow, no surprise there”. Sheila Nazarian, a US-based Jewish plastic surgeon, added clown emojis under Watson’s post.
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Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon decided to share the post on his Twitter handle with a caption of a Harry Potter reference, calling Watson an anti-Semite.
The tweet garnered a reaction from Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of a political organisation, who called the tweet an accurate example of weaponization of antisemitism that targets basic expressions on solidarity.
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Meanwhile, Israel’s current ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, also took to Twitter, stating that while fiction works in Harry Potter, it does not work in real life. If it had done so, the magic of the Potter world would’ve helped eradicate “the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women & seeks the annihilation of Israel) and the PA (which supports terror)”. He further added that if that had been the case, he would’ve been in total favour of it.
Watson’s post has spiraled into a snowball of opposing reactions, sparking heated conversations on the internet. Many have poured in with their stances, including UK politician Sayeeda Warsi, former CNN journalist Ayman Mohyeldin, and more.
