Middle East Eye
Gwyneth Paltrow faces backlash over Israeli luxury real estate campaign
Gwyneth Paltrow faces backlash over Israeli luxury real estate campaign
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Wed, 06/10/2026 - 17:50
Critics say the actress is helping market luxury homes in Israel while Palestinians face genocide, displacement and escalating settler violence
Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 46th Annual Muse Awards at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, on 20 March 2026 (Theo Wargo/Getty Images/AFP)
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Gwyneth Paltrow is facing massive backlash after appearing in a new advertising campaign for a luxury residential project in Israel.
The Oscar-winning actress and wellness entrepreneur is the face of a campaign for 51PARK, a development in Herzliya, Israel, by Israeli real estate group Aviv Melisron. The campaign was created by the Israeli creative agency, Why Worry, and filmed in New York.
In the advertisement, Paltrow is seen promoting the development as an aspirational luxury lifestyle project, drawing comparisons to high-end park-side residences in New York City before revealing that the destination is Herzliya.
Critics online said the campaign was particularly jarring as Israel continues its assault on Gaza, where rights groups, the United Nations and several states have accused it of committing genocide.
Over 72,900 Palestinians have been killed so far since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, with Israel violating the ceasefire, signed in October, on a daily basis. Since the ceasefire was implemented, at least 970 Palestinians have been killed, and the total number of wounded is over 3,000.
Others pointed to Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon and the ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where settler violence is at an all-time high.
Gwyneth Paltrow promotes $10M penthouses in Herzliya while Gaza burns and Lebanon bleeds.
While children are buried under rubble in Gaza, while Lebanese families flee Israeli airstrikes, while Gazans starve under total blockade, she is is fronting an ad campaign for "51 Park," a… pic.twitter.com/Exl7JVKmTm
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) June 9, 2026
The backlash has also focused on Herzliya's history, which was founded in 1924 by Zionist settlers on the land of the Palestinian village of al-Haram, which was part of Palestine under the Ottoman Empire. The village’s Palestinian residents were forcibly expelled in 1948 during the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes or fled during the creation of Israel.
Herzliya was named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism.
Gwyneth Paltrow is promoting 51 Park, a luxury housing project on the Herzliya seafront built on stolen land.
The site was once the Palestinian village of al-Haram, whose residents were displaced during the 1948 war.
The project is being built on land stolen from Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/uFL3LMVQRs
— 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐦 (@Malcolm_Pal9) June 10, 2026
Many social media users accused Paltrow of helping “whitewash” Israeli settler colonialism by attaching her image to a luxury property project at a time when Palestinians are being killed, starved and displaced.
Others contrasted the campaign with Paltrow’s previous public comments on the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel and Israeli captives.
In September 2024, following the recovery of the bodies of six Israeli captives, Paltrow shared a message of support on social media, writing: “I send you my heart. I have thought of you every day for 11 months.”
Critics said Paltrow had repeatedly amplified Israeli suffering while remaining silent on Palestinian victims, including reports by international watchdogs and rights groups documenting the torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
Some also pointed to her previous statements about alleged sexual violence by Hamas, saying she had shown no comparable concern when Palestinians accused Israeli soldiers of sexual violence and abuse in detention.
When Gwyneth Paltrow accused Palestinians of raping Israeli hostages and she said that rape is not resistance despite all this allegations are lies while ignoring the genocide that has been taking place since 1948 https://t.co/dVuyrE4Kju pic.twitter.com/ZX1dlgbTs2
— LPC (@landpalestine) June 10, 2026
Many reports since 7 October 2023 have detailed sexual abuse and violence in Israeli prisons, with first-hand victims’ testimonies supported by reports from international organisations.
The campaign has renewed wider criticism of celebrities who continue to partner with Israeli brands and institutions amid the genocide in Gaza.
Paltrow has also shared hostage-awareness campaigns online and spoken out about alleged sexual violence by Hamas on 7 October, claims that Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera investigations have said were not supported by evidence of systematic or mass rape.
The Israeli army, however, approved the return to reserve duty of soldiers who had been suspected of torturing and raping a Palestinian detainee.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also detailed harrowing testimonies of the rape of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in a landmark piece published in May.
For many social media users, Paltrow’s appearance in the advertisement was not seen as a neutral commercial deal, but as a political choice.
Many also drew parallels between the Holocaust and Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with one user writing, “it’s like advertising for luxury villas in Nazi Germany during peak Holocaust.”
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