Zayn Malik, member of the world-famous boy band 'One Direction,' has been receiving death threats and other negative comments online after posting #FreePalistine on Twitter, Daily Mail reports.
The 21-year old shared the hashtag to his more than 13 million followers. The said post was retweeted over 140,000 times.
Moments after the posting, Malik received numerous messages, some of which are telling the singer to "kill himself." Another message reads, "Let me kill you."
Other netizens commented that Malik's post would result in losing his fanbase in Israel.
A fan posted a message saying, "Zayn should say what he said I mean if we're such a terrorists like he said why wouldn't we kill him for saying that huh @zaynmalik [sic]."
Another netizen wrote, "U have fans in #Israel. It broke me that one of my idols wand me to die @benwinstone @harry_styles @onedirection [sic].'
The One Direction star's controversial tweet on the Gaza conflict may upset Syco boss Simon Cowell who donated £90,000 to the Friends of the Israel Defence Forces (FIDF) at a fundraising event the previous year. The organization supports Israeli soldiers on behalf of the international Jewish communities.
It can be remembered that this is not the first a celebrity received backlash from commenting on the Middle East conflict. A few weeks ago, Pop star Rihanna also sparked a storm on the Internet after posting a message with the same hashtag to her 36.4 million followers.
The 26-year-old singer's post was retweeted thousand times and was removed eight minutes later. It was reported that Rihanna never meant to post it. The singer later tweeted: "Let's pray for peace and a swift end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! IS there any hope?..."
Zayn's mother, Trisha Malik, was born to a white British working class family in Bradford, Yorkshire. His father Yasser is a British Pakistani. Zayn was brought up a Muslim.
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