Boy George under fire for releasing pro-Israel song, denies genocide in Gaza

Did Boy George release a pro-Israel song?

George posted the new track, titled "Od Nirkod (We Will Dance Again)," with the caption "Shalom" to his X account. The reggae-style record serves as a reference to the Hamas attack on the Supernova Sukkot Gathering festival on October 7, which resulted in 378 deaths and led to Israel launching a military campaign in Gaza. If the name sounds familiar, that's because a 2024 documentary based on the attack has the same title.

The new record denies that a genocide is happening in Gaza with opening lyrics that say, "You say genocide / I say war / When you're attacked / That's what the army is for / Does it get ugly? / You bet it does / When I know you want to kill / Every last one of us..."

According to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations, a genocide is very much happening in the Middle East. The UN even recently reported that "Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children."

Did Boy George receive backlash for his new song?

George's comment section was flooded with angry people who called out his "narcissist" move to release a song denying a mass genocide. Many were quick to reference a case back in 2007 where George was sentenced to 15 months in jail for falsely imprisoning a male escort, handcuffing him to a wall, and beating him with a metal chain.

Following his post, George actually responded to a few people on social media defending the new track and even saying, "I call it 'pro peace!" He also seemingly confirmed using AI to produce the song, which earned pushback from fans.

His comments aren't a huge surprise as he's shown support to Israel for a long time. Earlier this year, he said at a Eurovision event in London, "I have many, many Jewish friends that I’ve had since I was 15 or 16 years old. Are people asking me as a principled human being to turn my back on my Jewish friends? It’s not going to happen, it’s never going to happen." He's even rejected calls from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to perform in Tel Aviv.

Check out some of the comments that Boy George has received below.