American football star, Reggie Bush has come under fire after posting messages on social media linking the unrest in Ferguson to the latest Gaza war.
The Detroit Lions NFL player posted photos on his Instagram account saying the Ferguson “problem” is a “global problem.”
“No matter who you are, what color skin you have, where you live, we are all in this together! This isn’t a Ferguson problem it’s a Global Problem! We need change NOW! What happened to humanity? #JusticeForMikeBrown”
In the photo, a man is pictured holding up a sign reading: ““The Palestinian People know what mean to be shot while unarmed because of your ethnicity. #Ferguson #Justice,” the message on the sign read.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an anti-Semitism watchdog, blasted the Bush for attempting to equate the conflict with the grand jury’s decision not to prosecute the white police officer who killed an unarmed African-American man, sparking the unrest.
“The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not based on race, it is a political dispute based on claims to land,” ADL National Director Abraham H Foxman told CBS News.
“By conflating the death of Michael Brown with the conflict in the Middle East, Reggie Bush demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of both issues. He should stick to football,” he added.
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Following staunch criticism in comments under his post, Bush, 29, posted another photo in effort to clarify his stance.
“This issue is a GLOBAL issue (I believe I said that already in one of my posts as well) as you can see,” he wrote in a caption of the second photo in which a girl held a sign reading: “Ferguson, with love from Palestine.”
“People all over the world have been affected by the unfortunate events that have taken place in Ferguson! I chose to take a stance on this issue because I’d rather have an opinion than to sit back and be quiet and say nothing at all! I wasn’t expecting everyone to agree with me and I wasn’t expecting everyone to like my posts!”
“…I wasn’t expecting everyone to agree with me and I wasn’t expecting everyone to like my posts! An [sic] unarmed young man lost his life period! And that’s unfortunate! I don’t know much about shooting people or getting shot but I do know if you shoot someone once in each leg (not 6-10 times) maybe even 3 times, chances are they will slow down! So my heart goes out to the family members of Mike Brown and anyone else that has gone through similar or worse tragedy!”
