International football player, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been attacked on social media after starring in an Israeli commercial.
The 31-year-old Portuguese star, who plays for Portugal and Real Madrid, appears in a new advert for Israeli cable company Hot, alongside three Israeli comedians who sport exaggerated footballer hairdos. The commercial is titled, “200MB Internet – Faster than Ronaldo” and you can watch it below.
Ronaldo seemed pleased with his appearance in the advert, posting a link to the video to his 40 million Twitter followers.
The tweet has sparked debates between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian supporters with detractors using the hashtag, #FreePalestine, along with their messages.
One user commented: “You spelled ‘OCCUPIED PALESTINE’ kinda weird there.”
For pro-Palestinian supporters, any act of cooperation with an Israeli company was enough for them to give Ronaldo an instant ‘red card’. While there were those who decided to boycott Ronaldo, others who tweeted their support for the star and for Israel.
There are rumors that I'm going to be a star in Israel. Not in soccer… In a HOT commercial https://t.co/1wkz4vHgB2
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) February 10, 2016
As is often the case with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and pro-Palestinian supporters, any celebrity who expresses support for the Jewish state or simply cooperates with Israeli ventures faces intense backlash. There is great pressure on artists to cancel performances in Israel. Despite this, Israel is seeing a boom with international artists making the journey to the Holy Land.
Christians United for Israel UK