For the longest time, the topic of the Palestine-Israel war has been extremely sensitive with many celebrities choosing to stay silent on the matter to avoid controversies, misunderstandings or even losing business deals.
However, some K-pop idols have shown some sort of “support” for one party that did not sit well with their fans and are now facing intense backlash. Here are some of those the celebs that are being cancelled by netizens:
1. Eric Nam (에릭남)
Let’s start off with the most recent one. After announcing his concert in Southeast Asia, fans, especially those in Malaysia, were quick to find out that the singer “liked” an Instagram post that indicated he was staying neutral regarding the war. This has led many to call for a boycott, urging the concert to be cancelled.
After much backlash from netizens, Eric has “unliked” the controversial post. Unfortunately, neither he nor the organiser have released a statement regarding the issue.
2. Song Seunghyun (송승현)(F.T Island)
Former band member of K-rock band F.T Island (에프티 아일랜드) Seunghyun was under fire earlier this month for posting a “Praying for Israel” photo on his Instagram page. The musician received overwhelming criticism from fans and soon deleted the post. However, the damage has been done and it is currently unknown if the “Oh! My Assistant” star has addressed his political stance on the crisis.
3. Lee Suji (이수지)(The Ark, Uni. T)
Lee Suji is a former member of K-pop girl group The Ark (2015) and then later Uni. T (2018). The idol recently posted an IG story of a news headline about the war along with a caption where she offered her prayers to the people of Israel.
Unfortunately, there has been no update on whether or not she apologised for the post.
4. Choi Siwon (최시원) (Super Junior)
Choi Siwon has had his share of controversies over the years but one thing about the Super Junior member that does not sit well with fans is that he once attended a Korea-Israel Prayer Breakfast Event last year.
The singer even posed for a photo with an Israeli ambassador. Despite the backlash and netizens urging him to delete the post, the idol still has the photos up on his Instagram page.
5. Samara (“Dream Academy”)
Not even an idol yet but we thought it’s still worth mentioning. Samara, a contestant on the “Dream Academy”, was under fire recently for liking certain videos on TikTok. Though the videos did not specifically mention supporting Israel or Palestine, they did talk about the ongoing conflict from a religious point of view with one video allegedly mentioning that Muslims are a danger to the world.
Fans were quick to call the yet-to-debut idol out after noticing her likes. Neither HYBE nor Samara released a statement on the matter, however, the singer’s mother defended her, saying she did nothing wrong.
6. Ju-ne (준회)(iKON)
Junhoe love Israel politics savage pic.twitter.com/mDjhip5Uou
— monika (@ASK987PK) September 13, 2023
This incident was not recent but an old clip of the iKON member recently resurfaced that showed him expressing his interest in wanting to visit Israel. When asked about why he chose the location, in the subtitles shown, he answered that he wanted to “experience the country’s politics”.
However, fans argued that this was a case of mistranslation with some saying that the main vocalist wanted to experience the scenery and atmosphere rather than politics. The fans who were responsible for providing the subtitles apologised for the mistranslation that has caused the controversy. The idol himself has yet to speak out about this issue.
7. Kevin (케빈) (THE BOYZ)
@chayahobi Israeli deobis🇮🇱🥺 #kevinmoon #theboyz #israel #deobis #kebin #개빈문 #이스라엘 #freeisrael #🇮🇱❤️ #kpop #ישראל
Here’s another incident that was not necessarily recent but has been brought up by netizens online. An old video of Kevin’s livestream resurfaced where he said he wanted to visit Israel after watching a travel documentary. Not long after the livestream, the vocalist made a statement to clarify that he does not support any kind of oppression and has since implicitly shown his support for Palestine.
After the resurfaced video went viral, the idol made it clear that he could not explicitly mention his political stance because of the industry he’s in. However, he encouraged his fans to learn about the truth through reliable sources and spread awareness.
🌙: A song that a lot of people need to hear right now and I'm hoping it will clear things up because I believe that every person out there deserves at the least basic human rights. and in no way do i support any kind of oppression. it's just crazy to think that people are being pic.twitter.com/iQpSP2rmzV
— cham 🍁🌙 (@maple_boy0223) August 25, 2021
Sources: Instagram(1)(2), Twitter, Koreaboo (1)(2)
