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Children’s YouTube star Ms. Rachel doubled down on her Gaza advocacy Thursday, criticizing “uncancellable” celebrities who have stayed silent about Palestinian children and questioning why stars with secure careers would not “risk something” to help save lives.
Accurso, whose full name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, appeared on comedian Ilana Glazer’s “It’s Open” podcast to directly challenge major celebrities who have avoided taking public positions on the war.
“If you are so famous, and you’re uncancellable, and you’re so famous, and you won’t even say like, ‘Kids in Gaza should have schools, people in Gaza should have hospitals.’ Like you won’t say something so basic and like why can’t you risk something to help save lives,” Accurso said.
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Ms. Rachel criticized “uncancellable” celebrities who have stayed silent on Gaza, asking why they would not “risk something” to help save lives. (Variety via Getty Images)
Accurso’s latest remarks came after Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, recently told Fox News Digital that he believed the amount of attention she devotes to Palestinian children compared to children suffering elsewhere was disproportionate.
“When 0.09% of starving children receive 90% of her attention, something is wrong,” Menken said.
Elizabeth Barcohana, the California Republican Party’s Jewish engagement chair, also criticized Accurso in a statement to Fox News Digital last week after the children’s entertainer accused celebrities and leaders who had remained silent about Gaza of applying a racial double standard.
“Ms. Rachel is essentially sanitizing terrorism with false and misleading information to emotionally manipulate her very impressionable following,” Barcohana said.
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Ms. Rachel doubled down on her Gaza advocacy during an interview with Ilana Glazer, also calling out silence surrounding children in detention, Sudan and other humanitarian crises. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Accurso broadened her criticism beyond Gaza during the podcast to other humanitarian issues, saying she was frustrated with prominent figures who did not publicly address them.
“I am really upset that people aren’t speaking out about kids in detention and aren’t speaking out about Gaza and Sudan and everything,” Accurso said.
The conversation began with Glazer raising rapper Mackelmore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour following his onstage “Free Palestine” remarks. Accurso dismissed Sheeran by name before broadening her criticism.
Tour promoter Messina Touring Group said multiple venues refused to allow Macklemore to perform, while Sheeran later said the decision to remove the rapper was made by the promoter, not him. Sheeran subsequently addressed the controversy at a Philadelphia concert, condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks while describing the situation in Gaza as catastrophic and unjustifiable.
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Rapper Macklemore was recently dropped from singer Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after Macklemore said “Free Palestine” before a performance. (Getty Images)
Macklemore later pledged $1 million in tour proceeds to Palestinian aid organizations, a donation Accurso pledged to match as she urged other wealthy celebrities to do the same.
Accurso also repeatedly characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “genocide” during the Glazer interview, saying she believed using the term could help pressure the international community to act.
A U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in June that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children and said their conduct amounted to genocide and other international crimes. Israel rejected the commission’s conclusions and formally challenged what it called flaws in its composition, mandate and methodology.
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A separate genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel remains before the International Court of Justice. The court has issued provisional measures in the case but has not issued a final judgment on whether Israel committed genocide.