British stalwart comedian Dawn French apologised after a clip of her appearing to mock pro-Israel arguments following the October 7 attacks sparked major backlash from users
Dawn French has apologised after appearing to mock pro-Israel arguments on social media.
The comedian, 67, has been at the centre of headlines recently after shedding her weight in a slew of pics uploaded to her social media. She also has made several appearances on television, reuniting with best pal Jennifer Saunders on The Masked Singer.
However, Vicar of Dibley star Dawn sparked a furore on Friday (June 6) after uploading a video in which she gave her thoughts on the ongoing war in Gaza. Taking to her X account, the French and Saunders icon appeared to use a baby-like voice when speaking about the arguments used in favour of military intervention in the Palestinian territory.
In the video, simply captioned as “No.”, Dawn said: “Complicated, no, but nuanced. But [the] bottom line is no.
“Yeah, but you know they did a bad thing to us… and we want that land… and we have history… Those people aren’t really even people, are they?” she added in the video. In between each argument, French brought her voice back to normal as she repeated the word, “No.”
The video soon went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, amassing nearly 5 million views on the post. However, while some supported Dawn for her views, many criticised her for appearing to mock the suffering of the victims of the attack, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
Taking to her Instagram account on Saturday (June 7), Dawn shared a lengthy apology, saying her intention was “never to mock, or dismiss, or diminish the horror of what happened on 7 October 2023”. She also said she did want to trivialise “what continues to unfold from that brutal, unthinkable, unforgivable, savage attack.”
Instead, she said she hoped to “mock and point the finger of shame” at politicians and leaders on both sides of the argument while innocent civilians continued to die. “THEY were my target, but clearly I failed to do that, and that’s on me,” she penned.
“I apologise unreservedly. I’m particularly sorry that my disgust at Hamas didn’t figure; it appeared one-sided and that is wrong.”
Dawn went on to say that she hoped fans and followers would believe her statement and insist that she had no desire to deliberately offend. She closed off her statement by confirming that she had removed the video and apologised once again, before signing off.
Reacting to the apology, actress Tracey-Ann Oberman, who is Jewish, said she was disappointed in Dawn’s actions, believing she was “mocking […] the most horrific terrorist attack” that she had seen. She added: “I can mourn the horrors of the war in Gaza whilst also remembering the horrors of what started it; is this how most of our industry feels now – Oct 7 was a ‘little thing’? NO!”
Dawn, however, shot back, saying she never said that the October 7 attacks were “a little thing”. She went on to denounce the attacks another time, branding them “appalling” and “horrific”, but insisted that “starving innocent children is not the answer”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
