The courage of British actress Emma Watson that voices solidarity for Palestine on social media, apparently not only garnered praise from pro-Palestinian social media users but also elicited backlash from current and former Israeli officials.
Watson, who is best known for her role in the Harry Potter films as Hermione Granger, reposted a May post from the Bad Activists Collective on her personal Instagram account on Sunday.
The post shows pro-Palestinian activists lined up with the words “Solidarity is a verb” prominently displayed on the image.
The 31-year-old actress captioned her post with a quote from British-Australian scholar Sara Ahmed who said emphatically that solidarity involves commitment and work, as well as an acknowledgment that even if we have the same feelings or the same life, or the same body, we do live on common ground.
Watson’s post quickly evoked a reaction from Instagram users who dominated on praising her. Pro-Palestinian social media users even commented, expressing their gratitude for her support, complete with a Palestinian flag emoji, many with the hashtags #FreePalestine and #PalestineWillBeFree.
Not only known for her big-screen roles, Watson is also widely recognized as a United Nations goodwill ambassador.
However, in addition to praise, the post seems to have also invited negative criticism from Israel’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who criticized the star on Twitter implicitly, saying that her actions were a fiction that could not work in reality.
His predecessor, Danny Danon, also joined him, accusing Watson of ‘being antisemite’.
On the other hand, Leah Greenberg, the co-executive director of the progressive Indivisible Guide group, dismissed Danon’s accusations, saying that they are “a perfect demonstration of the utterly cynical and bad-faith weaponization of antisemitism to shut down basic expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
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