Why Is Isabela Merced Accused of Being a Zionist?

houseandwhips.com – Isabela Merced is facing accusations of being a Zionist after the announcement of her being cast as Dina in the second season of The Last of Us. The actress is said to have posted Israeli propaganda on her Instagram story. Some people counter that Isabela Merced has also liked pro-Palestine posts but the majority now considers her Zionist.

Isabela Merced is an American actress and singer who is most recognized for playing the lead role of CJ Martin on the Nickelodeon television series 100 Things to Do Before High School. She also lent her voice to Nickelodeon’s animated spinoff series Dora and Friends: Into the City!. Besides television, she has starred in several movies. She has played the roles of Izabella in Transformers: The Last Knight, Lizzy in Instant Family, Isabel in Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Dora in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Rachel Cooper in the Netflix film Sweet Girl.

Isabela Merced is said to be playing Hawkgirl in Superman: Legacy and has been announced to have landed a starring role in Madame Web and a role in Alien. She was recently cast in the role of Dina in the second season of The Last of Us and that has opened up a can of worms. Following the news of her casting, social media was flooded with claims that she is a Zionist. What’s that about? Let’s find out!

Would you also like to read the stories of Ariana DeBose and Rebecca Yarros being accused of Zionism?

Isabela Merced Is Accused of Being a Zionist!

Isabela Merced is a Zionist according to pro-Palestine social media users.
Image Source: Deadline

So, Isabela Merced (@isabelamerced) will be joining the hit HBO series The Last of Us in its second season, playing the role of Dina. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the co-creators of the show, are very proud of their casting decision because as they said, Merced is “brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous, and instantly lovable.” However, not everybody is happy that she will be playing the role of a Jewish person when she is not one herself. Also, they don’t like that she is a Zionist.

Yeah, turns out Isabela Merced does not have a clean bill of anti-racism and anti-genocide because as people on social media pointed out, she has been liking posts that support Israel and most importantly, she herself has posted Israeli propaganda on her Instagram Story. Having weighed in her opinions on the conflict between Israel and Palestine publicly, she was bound to be either praised for being pro-Palestine or criticized for being a Zionist. The accusations of Zionism that followed have proved that.

In an Instagram Story, Isabela Merced posted her views on the ongoing conflict and people (pro-Palestinians) didn’t like what she said because there was no mention of the genocide and ethnic cleansing and she only talked about Hamas whereas that’s not all there is to the issue which is much more deep-rooted. They hated that she turned a blind eye to the sufferings and plights of the Palestinians. The story that led to her being considered a Zionist contained statements such as

Palestinians need a solution that honors their aspirations and their humanity.

And

Neither Palestinians nor Israelis can exist peacefully under the threat of Hamas.

And

Protecting innocent civilian life must remain of utmost priority.

Isabela Merced’s Fans Counter the Accusations That She is a Zionist By Saying She Has Liked Pro-Palestine Posts!

Isabela Merced is criticized for her seemingly neutral stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Image Source: Teen Vogue

While that may seem harmless in its tone because the statement is mostly neutral, it’s the neutrality that pro-Palestine people hate the most because the conflict between Palestine and Israel is not a simple issue that you can be neutral about. You have to pick sides because if you don’t, you are essentially supporting the genocide by ignoring it and taking only recent events into account which is only the consequence of the actual issue and not the whole issue itself. Because Isabela Merced did exactly that, she is facing criticism for being a Zionist.

Some of her fans have come to her defense saying that her posting that story absolutely does not show her support for Israel in any way and that she is actually neutral because she has liked some pro-Palestine posts as well. But the claims of being a Zionist is not something that can be cleared by a few likes. Also, after the initial accusations of Zionism, Isabela Merced posted another story which said,

You can support Palestinians and still protect your Jewish friends. No one should live in fear.

That didn’t help matters because it still doesn’t address what the Palestinians have been through for the past 75 years. Many have given her the benefit of the doubt that she’s uneducated in these matters but there are others who think it’s no coincidence that she was cast in The Last of Us whose creator Neil Druckmann himself is a known and vocal Zionist.