Social media: Harassment campaign against celebrities who support Israel

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has caused vitriol on social media. Supporters from the different sides are confronting each other online. Since the Hamas offensive began this Saturday, killing more than 1,000 Israeli civilians, several celebrities and personalities have posted messages of support for Israel and the families of the missing. However, these expressions of support and solidarity have been met with violent reactions from other users.

This was the case of Madonna, Gal Gadot, Ivanka Trump, Kylie Jenner and more American celebrities. Many of these posts were made on Instagram, though they have since been re-shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Kylie Jenner, a prominent member of the Kardashian family, posted an Instagram story with an Israeli flag captioned: "Now and always, we stand with the people of Israel!" The model and celebrity soon deleted the post due to the barrage of negative messages from pro-Palestinian activists.

A similar situation occurred with Israeli-American dual citizen and actress Gal Gadot. Born in Peta Tikva, Israel, she spent her youth there and even served her mandatory military service. The actress has made several posts about the attacks since Saturday. The first of them was an Israeli flag. In the comments, several users criticized her position and called for a boycott of her personal brand. Gadot's post had 82,000 comments as of Wednesday.

Changing tides in the United States

What the celebrities experienced on social media is the result of a trend in the United States that sees support for Israel decreasing in favor of support for Palestine. According to a Gallup study with data from March 2023, Americans support Israel less and less, especially the younger generation.

The trend is more noticeable among Democratic voters. Democrats' sympathy toward Palestinians changed between 2011 and 2023, to the point that a larger percentage of that party now sympathizes more with Palestinians than with Israelis (49% to 38%, respectively).

The changes among Republican voters are much more sustained and in the case of baby boomers, Generation X and the silent generation, where support for Israel even increased. Support for Israel among Republican millennials alone fell from 64% in 2011-2014 to 50% in 2023.