HYBE Director Scooter Braun Accused Of Endorsing Killing Of Infants In Gaza In New Instagram Post

He backed a post from an Israeli soldier.
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Serah S. Cherrie
Serah S. Cherrie

Content Warning

This article includes descriptions of graphic content and violence that may disturb some readers.

In the past few months, Scooter Braun, a member of HYBE’s Board of Directors and the CEO of HYBE America, has been constantly criticized by fans of multiple HYBE artists for his active role in promoting Zionism amidst Israel’s onslaught on civilian life in the Gaza Strip of Palestine.

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Scooter Braun | Rotten Tomatoes

On April 21, KST, Braun took to his Instagram and shared a video where an Israeli soldier volunteers to take questions about Gaza from passersby on a street in the US. He carries a sign that says, “I was just in Gaza. Ask me anything.”

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The video is composed of multiple abruptly cut clips of this particular soldier talking to different individuals on the street, explaining how Israeli soldiers are forced to kill civilians because Hamas, the Palestinian resistance fighters, allegedly put civilians in the line of fire. But the claim that has caused the most outrage was this soldier justifying why infants are killed in the Gaza Strip.

A woman confronts the soldier, saying, “I didn’t know infants could be a part of Hamas.” To this, the man astonishingly responds that Hamas “can hold the infants onto them as they shoot Israeli civilians.” When the woman contests this claim, saying nobody has seen evidence of this happening, the man responds that he has personally encountered such situations. The clip then has a jump cut to the woman suddenly agreeing with his viewpoint.

The video, which contained some claims that have been contested and remain unsubstantiated, is being deemed as an attempt to manufacture consent for continuing the devastation of civilian life in Gaza. The comment about the infants, especially, has been met with fierce backlash, as many pointed out the lapses in the claim.

As netizens point out, the human shield argument falls flat in front of the documented reality of infant deaths in Gaza. There have been multiple reported cases of children injured or dead from sniper shots, which are target-specific.

Additionally, even if the human shield claims are proven valid, according to Amnesty International, Israel is still obligated under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, infants included.

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| Amnesty International

Further, multiple Israeli military reservists, as well as politicians, have gone on record calling for the killing of Palestinian children, claiming that “there are no innocent children in Gaza.” These messages predate October 7, when Israel was brutally attacked by Hamas. Ben Gvir, the Minister of National Security of Israel, was infamously documented in 2015 as taking part in a wedding celebration where the crowd cheered the killing of a Palestinian infant who was reportedly burned alive.

A considerable number of infants have died in Gaza from either a lack of medical resources or food, as the Israeli military sieged hospitals and some citizens kept blocking aid. One of the most horrifying images to come out of Gaza in November 2023 was the decomposed bodies of several premature babies in the Al-Nasser Hospital who died in incubators when the hospital ran out of fuel. According to reports, when the Israeli army attacked the hospital, they forced the parents to leave these infants behind and then refused to transport them for treatment. Al Nasser, coincidentally, is in the Khan Yunis area of the Gaza Strip, the same place where the soldier in Scooter Braun’s Instagram story said he was stationed.

With all these points in consideration, fans feel increasingly uncomfortable with Scooter Braun’s association with HYBE artists. Though HYBE dismissed these concerns, calling them Braun’s “personal opinion,” many feel that his amplified visual association with HYBE artists of late makes it impossible for the company to evade responsibility. Braun’s support of Israel also extends beyond social media posts and into the sphere of politics. Hence, the situation is even more pressing for dissenting fans.

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Despite the apathy from HYBE and lack of support from their own fandoms, a group of HYBE fans is still pushing for a label-wide boycott until their demands for the company to divest from Zionism are met.

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| @btsprodsuga/Twitter

Meanwhile, this wasn’t the first time Braun’s Instagram post received heat from HYBE fans. Previously, he was called out for posting a story that was widely deemed Islamophobic and misogynistic. Read more about it here.

Source: Amnesty International
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