Justin Bieber shares 'pray for Israel' post – but glaringly messes up

Justin Bieber has been slammed for sharing and swiftly deleting a solidarity post for Israel – while using a photo of the destruction in Gaza.

In a post on Wednesday (11 October), the 29-year-old took to his Instagram Stories where he reshared a post which read: "Praying for Israel".

Meanwhile, the backdrop featured a photo of a destroyed block in Gaza.

The error did not go unnoticed with American writer and activist Shaun King sharing the post with his 3.7 million followers, describing it as society reaching "peak meaningless pop delusion."

"Showing the obliterated ruins of Gaza with 'Praying for Israel' is a depraved sign of the times," King wrote.

@justinbieber/Instagram

The post was soon flooded with backlash, with one person claiming "that's how the internet works."

"People are not really invested in the real issues to know what's going on," they added. "They just post for likes and 'acceptance'."

Another called celebrities a "joke" who "will spread misinformation to their millions of followers because they need to make a stance for PR."

A third encouraged people to pray for both Israel and Palestine, because "it's the innocent citizens who are being affected more than either corrupt government. My heart is breaking for them."

The 'Baby' singer deleted his Instagram Story within the hour and later shared the same message on a plain, green backdrop.

@justinbieber/Instagram

Social media has been inundated with fake news, disinformation and other inaccuracies – even Israel was hit with a correction online.

Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza and is broadly proscribed as a terrorist organisation, has repeatedly been compared to ISIS by Israel.

ISIS, stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It is sometimes referred to as ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

On Saturday, Israel's X/Twitter account tweeted: "Hamas = Isis. Remember that."

However, X's Community Notes jumped in with an anonymous user linking to a news report from the Times of Israel in 2019 which notes that "Hamas and ISIS hate Israel – and each other".

Indy100 reached out to Justin Bieber's representative for comment.

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