Critics are calling Billie Eilish a “racist” and “Zionist” for greeting her Israeli fans with, “Hi Israel,” in a TikTok video.
According to the Jewish Telegraph Agency, the pop singer posted the brief clip to promote her latest album, which Universal Music Group recently released in that country. She went on to say, “I’m so excited that my new album, Happier Than Ever, is out now.”
In response, some fans took to social media, demanding the teen “educate” herself, while others claimed her comment is proof she is a Zionist.
“Billie Eilish being a Zionist is literally not surprising at all,” said one person who received 1600 likes. Another claimed, “Billie Eilish being a Zionist is like the least shocking revelation you could come up with lmao, like wow no way the racist [white] girl is being racist again.”
As the weekend went on, more and more anti-Israel commentators on social media weighed in.
One tweeted, “I’m a Palestinian that doesn’t have the right to see my country again and if I go there I’d live in fear of being bombed or killed. Think before you speak.”
Another Twitter user posted photos of a crying child and captioned it, “Me, a long time Billie Eilish fan and supporter of Palestinian liberation, seeing her make a video saying ‘Hi Israel!’ and proceeding to promote her new album to her Israeli audience.”
Still another said, “Billie Eilish promoting Israel in the middle of a literal massacre of Palestinians is sickening. Celebs actually make me sick.”
Eilish isn’t the only celeb to be attacked as a Zionist in recent months as violence between Israel and Hamas has increased.
As The Daily Wire reported, actress Gal Gadot faced claims that she supports ethnic cleansing and violence towards Palestinians after she posted this message of peace to Instagram:
“My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation, Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”
Meanwhile, Jewish actor Seth Rogen has mocked concerns over rising anti-Semitism online. When writer Eve Bartlow promoted a story in Tablet Magazine highlighting her experience with social media hate, which included calling her “fartlow,” the actor responded with a puff of wind emoji.
The U.K.-based Israel Advocacy Movement quickly responded to the “Pineapple Express” star, saying, “Three days ago I was violently assaulted leaving a kosher restaurant because I was visibly Jewish. When a Jewish journalist spoke out against this violence… you humiliated her to your 9M followers. Would you humiliate people opposing anti-black racism? I don’t think so.”