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Reggie Bush raised a few eyebrows when he appeared to compare the perceived racial injustice of the grand jury decision not to prosecute the white officer responsible for the shooting dead of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson to the conflict that raged between Israel and Gaza over the summer.
The Detroit Lions NFL player, and former partner of Kim Kardashian, posted a provocative visual message via his Instragram account, which suggested the Israeli military had shot at unarmed Palestinians during the weeks of fighting:
“The Palestinian People know what mean to be shot while unarmed because of your ethnicity. #Ferguson #Justice,” the message on the sign read.
“No matter who you are, what color skin you have, where you live, we are all in this together! This isn't a Ferguson problem it's a Global Problem! We need change NOW! What happened to humanity? #JusticeForMikeBrown,” Bush wrote alongside it.
The death toll in Gaza reached over 1,834 Palestinians – an overwhelming majority of which were civilian casualties – since the Israel Defence Forces began its military campaign “Protective Edge” on 8 July.
More than a quarter of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents have been displaced and as many as 3,000 Palestinian homes are said to have been destroyed or damaged.
Meanwhile, Israel has lost 64 soldiers in combat and three civilians to Palestinian cross-border rocket and mortar fire that has emptied many of its southern villages.
However, after apparently receiving some criticism for the posts, he later clarified his message with a second post:
“This issue is a GLOBAL issue (I believe I said that already in one of my posts as well) as you can see,” he captioned it.
“People all over the world have been affected by the unfortunate events that have taken place in Ferguson! I chose to take a stance on this issue because I'd rather have an opinion than to sit back and be quiet and say nothing at all! I wasn't expecting everyone to agree with me and I wasn't expecting everyone to like my posts!
“A unarmed young man lost his life period! And that's unfortunate! I don't know much about shooting people or getting shot but I do know if you shoot someone once in each leg (not 6-10 times) maybe even 3 times, chances are they will slow down! So my heart goes out to the family members of Mike Brown and anyone else that has gone through similar or worse tragedy!”
Bush wasn’t the only high profile name to give his opinion on the decision. A number of famous people took to Twitter to express their views:
The town of Ferguson in St Louis was gripped by scenes of violence after a grand jury chose not to bring charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot dead Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, on 9 August.
The police reacted to the situation with yet more violence, firing rubber bullets at protesters and emptying canisters of tear gas. Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration declared the area above the town a no-fly zone.
In pictures: New Ferguson unrest
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More than 2,000 National Guard troops have since been deployed in the area in a bid to prevent rioting and looting, demonstrations against the decision taken in Ferguson, Missouri, swelled from Los Angeles to Washington.
