While Israel continues to commit atrocities in Palestine despite a ceasefire, there is sense of denial in the international media. Many celebrities and bigwigs who initially spoke out against the double standards of international reporting on the massacre have started to neutralize their opinions of war crimes and genocide. The debate is now focusing more on anti-Semitism — hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people — rather than the actual issue at hand. Mark Ruffalo, Gigi Hadid and many more are amongst the few who raised their voices and then changed their stance later.
Recently, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also labelled anti-Semitic by CNN journalist, Bianna Golodryga after he accused Israel of having “deep pockets”. Actor Sheheryar Munawar, who usually refrains from commenting, has shared his thoughts on the matter.
“When reputable foreign media agencies quote more than 200 ‘dead’ (How? Did they one day just internally combust?) and, on the contrary, 12 Israelis ‘killed’, it proves Israel either has deep pockets or has Professor Xavier on their pay roll controlling minds,” he wrote on his Instagram stories.
“Or maybe ‘credible’ journalists choose to bring in their own personal biases when reporting on the region (which could count as what racist? No wait, there’s no word for it – it’s known as Islamophobia which in itself justifies the act by using fear as reasoning and takes blame away from the one committing it – wow),” the actor added.
“Either way, how does stating facts make one anti-Semitic? Does saying Arabs have a lot of oil money make you…umm wait, yeah no word for it…for the sake of argument, Islamophobic?”
The actor explained it further: “There’s a difference between anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. Just as every Muslim is not a Taliban, every Jew is not Zionist. Am I or can the narrative from this side be called anti-Zionist? Yes! But we anti-Zionist because we are anti-fundamentalism, whether Muslim or Jewish.”
“But when Jewish toxic fundamentalism is backed by $3.8 billion dollars of US Military funding (sponsored by US tax payer money), then I have no qualms about calling a wolf a wolf specially when it doesn’t even have the courtesy to at least try and hide in sheep’s clothing.”
