(JTA) — Celebrity music impresario Simon Cowell is getting criticism for a $150,000 donation to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
Cowell’s donation, made at a Beverly Hills gala last October, has recently drawn more public attention, and with it some harsh online criticism for Cowell. According to Ynet, critics of Israel have been posting images of dead Palestinian children killed in Gaza to Cowell’s Twitter account. Other tweets accused Cowell of having “blood on your hands” and of acting on orders from his “masters in Tel Aviv.”
Cowell is Christian, but his late father, Eric, was Jewish, as is his current partner, Lauren Silverman, who recently gave birth to the couple’s first child.
The Friends of the IDF is a New York-based nonprofit that raises millions of dollars to support non-military benefits for IDF soldiers including fitness facilities, education programs and financial assistance.
