Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has been a treading topic on social media since Wednesday, after posting on his personal social media accounts his new appearance in an Israeli commercial.
“There are rumors that I’m going to be a star in Israel. Not in soccer… In a HOT commercial,” he twitted.
Palestinians, pro-Palestinian activists and Arabs from other states took to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to criticize Cristiano Ronaldo for appearing in an ad belonging to an Israeli company.
One user commented: “You spelled ‘OCCUPIED PALESTINE’ kinda weird there.”
Another one wrote on Youtube: “I love Ronaldo but when I seen [sic] this video now I hate him.”
“You’re just on the wrong side of history… You’re so deceptive… The oppressed children of Gaza and Palestine will never forgive you for having sold your soul to Israel apartheid. What a disgrace,” read one comment underneath Ronaldo’s Facebook post.
Many others responded on Twitter with the hashtag #freepalestine. The tweet soon became a battleground between Israeli supporters and pro-Palestine ones, according to the PNN.
On the other side, Ronaldo was praised by Israelis and Israel’s supporters.
One user wrote: “It’s the country that provides medical treatment to the poor #syrian people and the only democracy in the #MiddleEast” as well as more aggressive ones like “to all the mohameds and ahmeds out there.. GET A LIFE! Involving politics and evil with football sucks.”
The new commercial for Israeli internet company HOT sees the 31-year-old Portuguese player alongside three Israeli comedians.
In the ad, the three Israelis praise the speed at which they can watch Ronaldo playing by using HOT’s 200MB cable connection when they are approached by Ronaldo himself.
Ronaldo’s announcement garnered over 2,400 re-tweets and over 6,400 likes within the first 22 hours, as of Thursday.
The video itself had more than 130,000 views in just three days but has a 2:1 ratio of likes to dislikes because of the controversy surrounding Ronaldo’s appearance on it.
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