MADONNA IS A GENOCIDE SUPPORTER: TOO LATE FOR REDEMPTION

This is an opinion column.

Many are applauding Madonna for pleading with the new Pope to visit Gaza, “bring your light to the children,” and open humanitarian gates. In her Instagram posts and ensuing coverage, she also stressed she’s “not taking sides or pointing fingers.” InstagramAP News

That is precisely the problem. To treat a U.N.-flagged mass atrocity as a symmetrical tragedy is to sanitize the asymmetry of power that makes famine and bombardment possible. “Not taking sides” becomes a brand-safe posture that flatters the perpetrator’s frame and erases the victim’s reality. ynetnewsUnited Nations

Block quote:
“I’m not taking sides or pointing fingers… Please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late.” — Madonna, Instagram, Aug. 2025. Instagram

At this stage—after multiple International Court of Justice orders recognizing a plausible risk of genocide and demanding unimpeded aid—celebrity neutrality isn’t courage. It is complicity. ynetnews

Why the praise rings hollow

Madonna’s Gaza plea arrives long after the crucial moments when her platform could have mattered most. She chose to perform at Eurovision in Tel Aviv (2019) despite a high-profile BDS campaign urging her not to art-wash apartheid; Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams reportedly underwrote a $1 million fee for that appearance. During the broadcast, two dancers wore Israeli and Palestinian flags—an image that let Eurovision market “balance,” even as Palestinians remained besieged. The Times of IsraelBDSM Movementynetnews

Block quote:
“Pop artists are products of an industry obsessed with wealth accumulation and proximity to power… Ethics be damned.” — from Kenn Orfanos, Madonna’s Legacy of Supporting Apartheid (2019/2025). [Link]

Earlier, in 2012, she launched her MDNA tour in Tel Aviv against the pleas of boycott organizers—again positioning herself as a bridge-builder above “politics,” while the occupation deepened. BDSM Movement

This pattern—perform, plead neutrality, collect plaudits for ‘peace’—isn’t harmless. Cultural spectacles reshape moral common sense. They present Tel Aviv as normalcy, cosmopolitanism, and “European values” beside a population caged and starved under a blockade the U.N. said was rendering Gaza “unliveable.” Al JazeeraUnited Nations

“But she mentioned the children…”

Yes—and the children should be centered. But centering them means naming the policies that are killing them. UNICEF, OCHA, and independent famine monitors have repeatedly warned of aid obstruction and catastrophic hunger; the ICJ ordered Israel to enable humanitarian access. To plead for children while insisting on neutrality about the state strangling aid routes is to depoliticize the cause of their suffering. ynetnewsThe Times of Israel

If you want to help children, you must take sides—with the laws that protect them, with the corridors that feed them, and with the boycott called by the oppressed when all other avenues fail. Neutrality in the face of structural violence is not virtue; it is a velvet glove over the same iron fist.

The industry logic behind the whitewash

Madonna is hardly alone. The last half-century is littered with pop stars who took money from regimes or oligarchs amid repression—Sun City in apartheid South Africa; Sting’s gig tied to Uzbekistan’s kleptocracy; Nicki Minaj’s performance for Angola’s dictatorship. The common denominator is not culture but capital—the belief that wealth equals virtue and access equals agency. The result is a churn of “world-citizen” messaging that flattens oppression into vibes. (See Notes for sources.)

That logic is why both-sides statements are so beloved by publicists: they launder past decisions (Eurovision; MDNA in Tel Aviv) without conceding ethics or power.

No redemption without repentance

Real contrition would have a different grammar:

• Naming the system (occupation, apartheid, blockade).
• Joining the non-violent call from Palestinian civil society: BDS.
• Refusing future art-washing invitations, no matter the fee or venue.
• Platforming Israeli and Jewish anti-apartheid voices who have risked reputational and legal costs to tell the truth.

Anything less is choreography.

---

Block-quoted excerpt from 2019 (for historical context)

“One can only hope that her performance will cause some to dig deeper and see that human rights are either universal or they are nothing. And that there is no justification for playing apartheid.” — Kenn Orfanos (2019)

Full essay: “Madonna’s Legacy of Supporting Apartheid” (Substack).
https://kennorphan.substack.com/p/madonnas-legacy-of-supporting-apartheid

---

Notes & Sources (footnote-style)

1. Madonna’s 2025 plea & “not taking sides” language — Instagram posts; global coverage: AP. InstagramAP News
2. ICJ provisional measures (plausible risk of genocide; aid obligations) — Jan. 26 & May 24, 2024 orders; Reuters recap. ynetnews
3. Eurovision 2019 performance in Tel Aviv — flagged “non-political” line; dancers with flags. Times of Israel; Al Jazeera. The Times of IsraelAl Jazeera
4. BDS opposition to Madonna’s Tel Aviv shows (2012) — BDS Movement statement; Electronic Intifada recap. BDSM MovementThe Electronic Intifada
5. Sylvan Adams’ reported $1M underwriting (2019) — Ynet; industry coverage. ynetnewsWiwibloggs
6. UN on Gaza “unliveable” — UN press materials (2018); UNRWA update (2019); Al Jazeera report. United NationsUNRWAAl Jazeera
7. Author’s prior essay — Kenn Orfanos, 2019/2025, “Madonna’s Legacy of Supporting Apartheid,” Substack (linked above).