Simon Cowell has been sent harrowing images of dead Palestinian children on Twitter by protesters who have accused the X-Factor mogul of financially supporting the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Cowell is a figure who is never reluctant to court controversy but the ‘judge with attitude’ has now taken a bit part in a conflict on the world stage.
At a Friends of the Israel Defence Forces (FIDF) fundraiser last year held in Beverley Hills and hosted by billionaire TV magnate Haim Saban, Cowell dug deep and made a $150,000 donation to the organization founded by Holocaust survivors in 1981.
The FIDF explains on its website that it provides Israeli soldiers with “love, support and care in an effort to ease the burden they carry on behalf of the Jewish community worldwide.”
The gala dinner was attended by more than 1,000 supporters, including singer Lionel Ritchie, and raised over $20 million for the FIDF.
Yet Cowell has been singled out for special attention by dozens of Palestinian supporters who have slammed Cowell on Twitter for his generosity, and posted very graphic reminders of the bloodshed and loss of life resulting from the escalating violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The attacks on Cowell come in a climate already rife with fears of a growing anti-Semitism and alarming reports of Jewish people are once again being attacked and abused on the streets of Germany.
In tones worringly reminiscent of Hitler’s own paranoid and fantasy-fueled rantings about the Jewish people, some Twitter users have even suggested that the music mogul is part of a ‘Zionist’ conspiracy, and accused Cowell of obeying the orders of his ‘masters in Tel Aviv.’
The Daily Mail reported that one poster writing under the name Leema, sent Cowell a picture of four dead Palestinian children on stretchers and told Cowell:
“You have blood on ur [sic] hands.”
Another, calling himself Kiks sent Cowell a picture of a grieving father holding a dead baby with the message:
“u [sic] donated money to israel to do this. Now imagine this was ur [sic] child.”
A third poster going under the name of tmrottweiler sneered:
“Well at least Simon Cowell doesn’t have to go to Israel to see how the money he raised 4 the idf is being spent he just has 2 watch the news.”
Cowell was born a Roman Catholic but has increasingly embraced the faith of his Jewish girlfriend Lauren Silverman. In 2005 Cowell was said to be ‘thrilled’ with the discovery that his grandfather was a Jewish refugee from Poland.