Who is Mia Khalifa? Ex-adult star facing backlash over Israel tweet

Mia Khalifa has been one of the most vocal supporters of Palestine throughout the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

Khalifa, one of the most famous former porn stars, has been using her large following on social media to share messages of support towards Palestine and criticise the Israeli government.

Who is Mia Khalifa?

Born in Lebanon, Khalifa and her family moved to the United States in 2001. In numerous interviews Khalifa has shared her struggles of racism that she faced, especially during school, that only heightened after 9/11.

Despite only working as an adult film star for three months, she became the most-searched-for adult actress on sites such as PornHub and xHamster from 2016 to 2018. Her popularity occurred after she appeared in an adult film scene wearing a hijab, resulting in a range of criticism, and even death threats, as well as her parents publicly disowning her.

Since leaving the industry she has been critical of it, claiming to have only made $1,000 per scene - $12,000 in total - despite her videos generate millions of dollars. Khalifa also has no ownership over the videos and images that exist of her online, despite her wishes to have such content removed, referring to that time of her life as a "lapse of judgement".

"What I can take away from this is protecting other women and being a cautionary tale," Khalifa told Yahoo Lifein 2021.

Since leaving the adult film industry she has pivoted into content creation, regularly posting on platforms such as Instagram. Khalifa has also entered the world of sports commentary, previously hosting shows such as Sportsball and Out of Bounds.

What has she said on the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Khalifa was recently fired by the company Red Light Holland after tweeting "Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal."

"I'd say supporting Palestine has lost me business opportunities, but I'm more angry at myself for not checking whether or not I was entering into business with Zionists. My bad." Khalifa tweeted in response to her being fired by the company."

Khalifa has also been sharing posts on her X/Twitter profile such as: "rooting for everyone resisting oppression", as well as another post writing "Hamas ≠ [not equal to] Palestine" and "Jewish people ≠ Israeli government".

She later returned to social media to clarify her comments, adding: "I just want to make it clear that this statement in no way shape or form is [inciting] spread of violence, I specifically said freedom fighters because that's what the Palestinian citizens are... fighting for freedom every day."

There have since been claims on social media that Pornhub stepped in and started donating her video profits to Israel aid funds since her comments - rumours which were shut down by the company after indy100 reached out for comment.

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