Explained: Controversy Around Mia Khalifa Comments On Israel-Hamas War

Mia Khalifa got fired from the adult magazine Playboy and also lost a business deal with Canadian broadcaster and radio host Todd Shapiro. 

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Oct 11, 2023 - 14:55
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Explained: Controversy Around Mia Khalifa Comments On Israel-Hamas War

Former adult film actress Mia Khalifa faced backlash for her social media post regarding the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. 

“Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal,” Ms Khalifa said in a now-deleted tweet on X (formerly Twitter). 

Ms Khalifa's post sparked a wave of outrage on social media, resulting in her getting fired from both the adult magazine Playboy and a business deal with Canadian broadcaster and radio host Todd Shapiro. 

Playboy denounced her comments as "disgusting and reprehensible," specifically focusing on Ms Khalifa's celebration of Hamas's attacks on Israel. In a public statement, Playboy magazine wrote, “We are writing today to let you know of our decision to terminate Playboy's relationship with Mia Khalifa, including deleting Mia's Playboy channel on our creator platform. Over the past few days, Mia has made disgusting and reprehensible comments celebrating Hamas' attacks on Israel and the murder of innocent men, women and children. At Playboy, we encourage free expression and constructive political debate, but we have a zero tolerance policy for hate speech. We expect Mia to understand that her words and actions have consequences.”

Similarly, Todd Shapiro, who was in the final stages of a podcast deal with Ms Khalifa, promptly announced the termination of their arrangement in response to her statements.

Quoting Ms Khalifa's now-deleted post on X, Todd Shapiro wrote, “This is such a horrendous tweet @miakhalifa. Consider yourself fired effective immediately. Simply disgusting. Beyond disgusting. Please evolve and become a better human being. The fact you are condoning death, rape, beatings and hostage taking is truly gross. No words can explain your ignorance. We need humans to come together, especially in the face of tragedy. I pray for you to become a better person. However, it clearly seems like it's too late for you.”

However, Ms Khalifa, dismissing the firing, wrote in a separate post, “It's FREE PALESTINE until Palestine is FREE.”

She also said, “I'd say supporting Palestine has lost me business opportunities, but I'm more angry at myself for not checking whether or not I was entering into business with Zionists. My bad.” 

Ms Khalifa also praised the Palestinian militant group in a post that read, “I just wanna make sure there's 4k footage of my people breaking down the walls of the open air prison they've been forced out of their homes and into so we have good options for the history books that write about how they freed themselves from apartheid.”

Meanwhile, the death count in Israel has surged above 1,200.  

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