Justin Timberlake just landed in Israel, and one of the first things he did was visit the Western Wall and post a picture of himself praying at the site. He’s in Israel for a performance at Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, but it looks like his visit may be plagued by some unnecessary controversy.
The picture that Justin posted was incredibly low-key, with him praying against the wall, captioning the photo, “The Holy Land… What an experience. I will never forget this day #Israel.” The post received over 200,000 likes, but there were also several people who wrote incredibly insensitive, and frankly anti-Semitic, comments on the photo.
One fan wrote, “There was never an Israel, this was always Palestine.” Considering that Justin’s Instagram profile has over 4.4 million followers, his photos always garner a pretty passionate response, but I don’t think Justin expected to cause a controversy by posting a simple picture of him praying. Clearly, many of Justin’s pro-Palestinian fans didn’t like the fact that he referred to the wall as being part of Israel, with one fan also writing, “Correction : you are in Palestine not israel #disapointed.” Yeah, maybe you should learn how to spell first, dude.
The age-old argument over what’s Palestine and what’s Israel will forever continue, but to most of the world – and I assume, to Justin – the Western Wall is part of Israel, the nation. It’s not like he’s a politician and his job is to be politically correct all the time. He wrote what he wanted to write, and as an artist, he’s entitled to say whatever he wishes – and pray wherever he wishes. Besides, he doesn’t even consider himself religious, and calls himself more spiritual than anything else. I doubt he meant anything by his comment, and even if he did, it’s ridiculous that people are trying to cause backlash over nothing.
What do you guys think about Justin’s comments? Do you think people are overreacting over his photo? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Image Credit to Justin Timberlake Instagram