Colombian pop star faces backlash over photo with Israeli border guard

A photo published by a Colombian pop star posing beside an Israeli border police officer leads to a passionate debate among his nearly 30 million followers on social media.

Singer Maluma, who performed in Tel Aviv on October 12, shared on his Instagram account a picture with a smiling female Israeli border police officer above the caption “New security” in both English and Spanish, reported the Enlace Judio news website on Sunday.

The photo garnered nearly 1.3 million likes and 28,500 comments mostly debating Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians. While several followers supported the photo, others wrote messages such as “You lost all your Palestinian fanatics and I am the first of them,” “Did you ask how many Palestinians she killed before posing for a photo with her?” and “Posing with a member of Israel’s killer army.”

The singer also posted a second picture with Jerusalem in the background, drawing over 1.2 million likes and over 17,200 comments. In addition to Maluma’s nearly 30 million followers on Instagram, he has another 23 million on Facebook and 4.7 million on Twitter.

— JTA

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