Gal Gadot is trending for comments she made Wednesday regarding the flareup of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but not in the way she’d planned.
In a post published to her social media accounts, the Israeli-born actress expressed fears for her loved ones along with her hopes for “peace” and “better days” after a new round of attacks and counterattacks in the Gaza strip that left dozens of people dead.
“My heart breaks,” she wrote. “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 can live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”
Gadot’s statement comes days after a confrontation between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters escalated into rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip into Tel Aviv and a series of airstrikes conducted by Israel’s military. The rocket strikes killed at least three Israelis but were mostly thwarted by Israel’s advanced missile-defense system. The airstrikes leveled a multistory apartment building and killed at least 30 Palestinians, including 10 children, according to NBC News.
Gadot captioned the post with a broken heart emoji and disabled all comments. However, the tweet version of her message still managed to garner over 65,000 quote tweets and an online firestorm.
Twitter user @thetaeprint questioned Gadot’s plea for peace, citing the actress’s service in the Israel Defense Force from 2005-2007: “Reminder Gal Gadot served in the IDF for two years where she not only witnessed the ethnic cleansing of Palestine firsthand but also actively supported it. How can you advocate to stop the vicious cycle of terror when you are standing on the frontlines enabling it #FreePalestine.”
However, military service is required of all citizens of Israel.
Users like @r0sestardust took issue with the semantics of the post.
“The fact that Gal Gadot couldn’t bring herself to say Palestine or Palestinians once but instead refers to them as neighbours is very telling.”
Whereas @IsntIt10vely took a more lighthearted route, pitting Gadot’s iconic character against her.
Very simply put, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is over whether the land east of the Mediterranean Sea should be considered Israel or Palestine and how that land should be controlled. The ever-intensifying situation has been described as the world’s “most intractable conflict.”
