One Direction Divided Over Gaza

Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen July 28, 2014

One Direction is at a crossroads.

It seems that two members of the popular British boy band have very different opinions when it comes to the war in Gaza.

Frontman (and sometimes Jewish wannabe) Harry Styles was criticized last week for being too pro-Israel, after he started following Israel journalist Lliana Bird on Twitter, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Now, bandmate Zayn Malik has chimed in, tweeting out a “#FreePalestine” message to his 13 million followers. So far, it has received over 150,000 retweets.

#FreePalestine.

— zaynmalik1D (@zaynmalik) July 28, 2014

But not all fans were pleased. Per the Jewish Chronicle:

One fan told the 21-year-old, who was raised as a Muslim in Bradford, Yorkshire, that he should be “ashamed”. Another wrote: “I’m so disappointed right now”. One Israeli tweeted: “It broke me that one of my idols wants me to die”.

The two tween heartthrobs join a growing number of celebrities who have taken to social media to air their views on Operation Protective Edge. Just last week, Joan Rivers passionately defended Israel on TMZ.

Hopefully, Styles and Malik can agree to disagree — we wouldn’t want One Direction parting ways.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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