Justin Bieber Publishes ‘Praying For Israel’ Post Featuring Photo of Destroyed Gaza Block

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber published and then deleted a “Praying for Israel” post on Wednesday which featured a photo of destroyed residential buildings in Gaza instead of Israel.

Bieber shared the post — which originated from the celebrity-endorsed Churchome church — in his Instagram stories amid Israel’s conflict with Hamas, before deleting it after social media users pointed out that the photo actually showed ruins of buildings destroyed by Israel in Gaza.

The pop star went on to replace his post with another message which read, “Praying for Israel,” but did not feature any photo in the background.

Churchome also published another post with the same message but with a plain, black background.

Bieber also weighed in on the conflict in an earlier, since-expired post which read, “To vilianize all Palestinians or all Israeli people to me seems wrong… I’m not interested in choosing sides, but I am interested in standing with the families who have been brutally taken from us.”

Hollywood actress Jamie Lee Curtis also published and then deleted a post this week which showed Palestinian children looking up to the sky. Curtis accompanied the image with the caption, “Terror from the skies” and an Israeli flag emoji, before deleting the post after social media users pointed out that the children were Palestinian and not Israeli.