Justin Timberlake is performing in Israel this week and seeing some famous sights along the way.
The pop star posted an Instagram photo of himself praying on the Western Wall ahead of his performance in Tel Aviv Wednesday — and Palestinian fans were not pleased.
Timberlake captioned the pic: "The Holy Land... What an experience. I will never forget this day. #Israel"
Then Timberlake's nearly 4.4 million Instagram followers got pretty vocal about the photo.
Many pro-Palestine Instagram users fired back in the comments of the post:
- “There was never an Israel, this was always Palestine,”
- “Correction : you are in Palestine not israel #disapointed,” wrote another person.
- “Dude stfu sh*t like this makes me wanna change the song when your music comes on,” said another.
Others came to Timberlake's defense:
- “Welcome to the promised land,” said user yanir.
- “All the tickets were sold out,” said user atalyha_levy. “Come to israel again soon!!!!”
- "Justin israel loves you !! :-))" said avivitadgo.
Despite the controversy, organizers of Timberlake's concert at Tel Aviv’s HaYarkon Park have sold 44,000 tickets to the show, reports The Blaze. And count farmers in southern Israel as fans of the pop star, as a new melon has been named after Timberlake in honor of his visit.
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