Alicia Keys has denied that she was showing support to Palestinian militant group Hamas with a social media post that went wrong.
On Monday (October 16), the Grammy Award-winning singer and pianist took to Instagram with a since-deleted post stating that she wants to conquer paragliding as a way of overcoming fear.
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“What would u do if you weren’t afraid of anything???” Alicia Keys asked her fans. “Tell me your truth… I’ve had my eyes on paragliding.”
Her post arrived in the midst of the horrific and violent war taking place between Israel and Hamas. On October 7, Israel declared war on the Hamas after an unprecedented attack that left more than 1,300 dead in Israel. Retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have since killed more than 1,500 people.
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One of the main ways Hamas have carried out their attacks against Israel is by the utilization of powered paragliding — causing people to believe that Alicia Keys was siding with the militant group and their violent tactics.
The “Diary” singer quickly took to her Instagram Stories to clear up any misconceptions regarding her being in support of the atrocities currently taking place overseas. “The post I shared was COMPLETELY unrelated in any way to the recent devastating loss of innocent lives,” she said. “My heart has been breaking…. I pray for and stand for peace.”
There have been a number of celebrities who’ve either given statements of support or offered prayers regarding the devastating conflict taking place between Israel and Hamas.
However, DJ Vlad decided to go in a different direction recently after he called out Drake and DJ Khaled for their silence regarding the violent war over territory.
Taking to Twitter last week, Vlad had words for both of them, saying that because Drake was brought up Jewish and Khaled is Palestinian-American, they should speak out.
“Has anyone noticed that the most famous Jewish person on Earth, Drake, and the most famous Palestinian person on Earth, DJ Khaled, haven’t said a single thing about the Gaza-Israel conflict?” he began. “It’s not like Drake is too busy. He’s been writing paragraphs about Joe Budden hurting his feelings about his new album. DJ Khaled has been working overtime promoting his new Jordan sneakers. But both of them have been silent on this topic. Why is that?”
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He continued: “It’s because both are so thirsty to maintain their relevance that they wouldn’t dare risk insulting a segment of their fanbase. Heaven forbid that Drake might debut at #2 behind Taylor Swift because some of his Palestinian fans chose to not stream his album. And it would be the end of the world if Khaled sold a few less sneakers because some Jewish people decided not to buy his Jordans.”
“That’s the difference between artists of today and timeless legends like 2Pac,” Vlad concluded. “You know damn well Pac would be the first one to speak out about something so close to home.”
He later doubled down on his opinion during an interview with The Breakfast Club.