Israeli envoys invoke Harry Potter in response to Emma Watson’s Palestine Instagram post
UN envoy Gilad Erdan said 'magic' doesn't work in real life, while his predecessor Danny Danon wrote '10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite'
Israel’s current and former envoys to the UN used Harry Potter references in response to actress Emma Watson’s post in solidarity with Palestinians.
Two diplomats responded to the star’s Instagram post which appeared on Sunday. It comprised of a slogan superimposed over a photo from a pro-Palestinian protest and a quote unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict attributed to Sara Ahmed, an Australian feminist theorist.
The slogan, which dominates much of the picture, reads “Solidarity is a verb.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, responded to her Instagram messaging, saying: It’ll take more than magic to solve the conflict.
“Fiction may work in Harry Potter but it does not work in reality,” Erdan said on Twitter Monday, attaching a screenshot of a post from Watson’s Instagram account. “If it did, the magic used in the wizarding world could eliminate the evils of Hamas (which oppresses women & seeks the annihilation of Israel) and the [Palestinian Authority] (which supports terror). I would be in favour of that!”
Danny Danon, the former envoy in New York and current chair of World Likud, shared a screenshot of the star’s Instagram post saying: “10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite.” Gryffindor is the name of the house her character Hermione Granger was in.
Danon’s tweet was quoted more than 2,500 times, with the majority of responses being criticism.
Among those to respond was Tal Ofer, an Israeli-born Brit and former representative on the Board of Deputies, who said “ showing solidarity with Palestinians isn’t an antisemitic manifestation. You would be surprised but many Jews in Israel and in diaspora express their solidarity too.”
David Schneider, a British Jewish actor and director, said: “Just as antisemitism in support of the Palestinian struggle against oppression damages that cause, so do crass dismissals of solidarity for Palestinians as antisemitism damage the fight against genuine antisemitism.”
Watson, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, is famous for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series. She and other actors and participants in the series marked the 20th anniversary this week of the first film with an HBO special.
It’s not clear however if Watson posted or approved the message or if the person who posted the message was endorsing its pro-Palestinian associations; Watson recently indicated that she has handed over control of at least part of the account to a left-wing activist group, and her Instagram profile bio reads, “Emma’s official Instagram has been taken over by an anonymous Feminist Collective.”
The post notes that it is a repost of a graphic and text originally shared by the Bad Activist Collective. The original post in May noted that the photo was from a pro-Palestinian protest. Watson’s post does not include that information.
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