Children’s YouTube personality Ms. Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, intensified her public advocacy for Palestinian children on Thursday, criticizing well-known celebrities she described as “uncancellable” for staying quiet on the war in Gaza.
Appearing on comedian Ilana Glazer’s podcast “It’s Open,” Accurso questioned why stars with secure careers would not use their platforms to speak up.
“If you are so famous, and you’re uncancellable, and you’re so famous, and you won’t even say like, ‘Kids in Gaza should have schools, people in Gaza should have hospitals.’ Like you won’t say something so basic and like why can’t you risk something to help save lives,” Accurso said.
The conversation began when Glazer brought up rapper Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after he made “Free Palestine” remarks onstage. Accurso criticized Sheeran by name before widening her comments to other celebrities. Tour promoter Messina Touring Group has said multiple venues refused to let Macklemore perform, and Sheeran has said the decision was made by the promoter, not him. Sheeran later addressed the controversy at a Philadelphia concert, condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks while calling the situation in Gaza catastrophic and unjustifiable.
Macklemore has since pledged $1 million in tour proceeds to Palestinian aid organizations, a donation Accurso said she would match, while calling on other wealthy celebrities to do the same.
Accurso extended her frustration beyond Gaza during the podcast, pointing to other humanitarian crises she said were being overlooked.
“I am really upset that people aren’t speaking out about kids in detention and aren’t speaking out about Gaza and Sudan and everything,” Accurso said.
Criticism from California Republicans and Jewish groups
Accurso’s advocacy has drawn pushback in recent weeks. Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told Fox News Digital he believes the attention she gives Palestinian children is disproportionate compared with children suffering in other conflicts.
“When 0.09% of starving children receive 90% of her attention, something is wrong,” Menken said.
Elizabeth Barcohana, the California Republican Party’s Jewish engagement chair, also criticized Accurso in a statement to Fox News Digital last week, after the children’s entertainer accused celebrities and leaders who had stayed silent on Gaza of applying a racial double standard.
“Ms. Rachel is essentially sanitizing terrorism with false and misleading information to emotionally manipulate her very impressionable following,” Barcohana said.
The genocide question
During the podcast, Accurso repeatedly described Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “genocide,” saying she believes using the term could pressure the international community to act.
A U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in June that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, and said the conduct amounted to genocide and other international crimes. Israel has rejected the commission’s findings and formally challenged what it calls flaws in the panel’s composition, mandate and methodology.
A separate genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel remains pending before the International Court of Justice. The court has issued provisional measures in the case but has not reached a final judgment on whether genocide occurred.
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