Emma Watson faces backlash after she shows solidarity with Palestinians

Former Israeli ambassador to UN calls Harry Potter actress an ‘antisemite’

Actress Emma Watson has been accused of antisemitism by Israel’s former ambassador to the UN after she posted an Instagram photo in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Israeli official Danny Danon retweeted Watson’s post with the caption: “10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite”.

Watson’s Instagram photo - itself a repost from the Bad Activist Collective’s account - showed people marching and holding ‘Free Palestine’ posters. Superimposed onto the image were the words “Solidarity is a verb”.

Mr Danon’s comments were criticised by Tory peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who said: “Showing solidarity with Palestinians is not antisemitism. Appalling comments from former Israeli Ambassador to the UN.”

However Israel’s current ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, was also critical of the Harry Potter actress’s social media post.

He wrote: “Fiction may work in Harry Potter but it does not work in reality. If it did, the magic used in the wizarding world could eliminate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women and seeks the annihilation of Israel) and the Palestinian Authority (which supports terror). I would be in favour of that!”

Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, praised Watson for her post. He said: “Solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation and justice is a human and moral duty on all freedom loving people. Thank you to Emma Watson.”

Watson, 31, has often handed over the control of her social media accounts to various activist groups. During Cop26 in Glasgow last year, Ms Watson gave climate activists access to her Instagram account and her bio still says that the account “has been taken over by an anonymous Feminist Collective”.

Watson accompanied the photo with a quote from feminist scholar Sara Ahmed.

The quote read: “Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future.

“Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.”