Actor Rachel Zegler condemned the AI-generated “All Eyes on Rafah” post that has been circulating on social media this week, echoing the criticisms of pro-Palestinian activists who have labeled the post performative.
In a message on social media on Wednesday, the “Hunger Games” star criticized those who were sharing the viral graphic, stating that it fails to provide information or context about what is happening to people in Gaza.
The post, which experts say was created by artificial intelligence (AI), depicts artwork of a landscape and mountain with the words “All Eyes on Rafah,” a phrase used to draw attention to Israel’s bombardment Sunday of camps for displaced people in Rafah, killing dozens of Palestinians sheltering in tents. At least 40 million people reshared the post on Instagram as of Wednesday.
“I genuinely find it disturbing that the only way so many people have suddenly felt comfortable sharing their support for palestinian lives is via an Al-generated image that doesn’t even begin to touch upon the actual horrors of what these human beings are experiencing,” Zegler wrote on her Instagram story.
Zegler, a Colombian American performer and Oscar nominee for “West Side Story,” added that there are numerous GoFundMe appeals, infographics or even other pieces of art that would have had been more effective posts to support the Palestinians in Gaza than “what the internet has decided is its ‘trendy’ version of showing up for a population that has been (publicly) massacred.”
Others online echoed her criticisms, pointing to celebrities and influencers who shared the image after being largely quiet about the attacks in Gaza over the past eight months.
“We have had real accounts and images for the past eight months about this genocide very well documented, and you’re choosing AI?” a user named Yeganeh said in an Instagram reel on Tuesday.
On Oct. 7, the militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing an…
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