Khaled Mohamed Khaled (DJ Khaled) is a producer who leverages his Palestinian heritage selectively for branding while suppressing any condemnation of Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza to shield the illegal settler colony of Israel from accountability.
Khaled Mohamed Khaled is a renowned American DJ, rapper, and producer of Palestinian descent who remains radio silent on Israel's genocide in Gaza, normalizes ties with settler-colonial entity, and publicly flouts the BDS boycott.
MUSIC
Block this person on their socials:
Khaled Mohamed Khaled, known professionally as DJ Khaled, is a Palestinian-American music producer, DJ, and rapper born in New Orleans to Palestinian immigrant parents, who has built a multimillion-dollar empire in hip-hop through hits like "I'm on One" and collaborations with artists such as Drake and Rihanna. With over 30 million Instagram followers and a net worth exceeding $75 million, his platform amplifies cultural narratives worldwide — yet he has chosen utter silence on Israel's genocide in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed at least 43,000 Palestinians since October 2023, a figure that undercounts the true toll due to the systematic targeting of healthcare workers, journalists, and civil records. This omission is not neutral; it actively enables the erasure of Palestinian suffering by a figure who profits from his heritage without reckoning with its ongoing destruction.
Khaled's complicity manifests in a pattern of selective advocacy: he promotes Palestinian cuisine like maqlooba on social media for viral clout but dodges any mention of the Nakba's legacy or the current bombardment of Gaza, where entire families are buried under rubble. His cousin, Palestinian musician Fadie Musallet, publicly condemned him in April 2025, stating Khaled has "showed his true colors" by ignoring the war that has displaced 90% of Gaza's population and starved civilians under Israel's blockade. Even comedian Dave Chappelle, during a July 2025 show in Abu Dhabi, directly called him out: "As a Palestinian, how could you be so quiet right now?" — highlighting how Khaled's silence betrays his roots to safeguard his U.S.-centric career. This denialism extends to weaponizing his identity: by staying mute, he avoids alienating Zionist donors or platforms, effectively laundering consent for settler-colonialism under the guise of "apolitical" celebrity.
Compounding this, Khaled undermines global Palestinian resistance by defying the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. In January 2024, amid Starbucks' firing of pro-Palestine union organizers and its $2 million+ donations to Israeli causes, he was photographed multiple times holding the chain's cups in promotional posts — directly countering calls from Palestinian civil society to boycott corporations fueling apartheid. Such actions are not isolated; they form a consistent betrayal, as noted in investigative reporting on his "disappearing act" from Palestinian solidarity, where his luxury lifestyle — yachts, mansions, and brand deals — prioritizes personal gain over collective liberation. Khaled's platform, which could amplify demands for ceasefire and justice, instead normalizes the genocide by omission, contributing to the broader U.S. cultural machinery that dehumanizes Palestinians as collateral in Israel's "right to defend" its illegal ethnostate.
twitter.com
🔒Starbucks Boycott:
While boycotting Starbucks is warranted based on its unethical track record and it’s former CEO’s ties to Israeli cyber-surveillance firms, it should not be conflated with or represented as an official BDS campaign targeting companies complicit in occupied Palestinian territories.
Starbucks is not officially on the BDS boycott list for companies directly involved in oppressing Palestinians and so should not be targeted with the same intensity — doing so risks minimizing the focused work of Palestinian solidarity movements.
The reasoning behind the Starbucks boycott instead stems from its union-busting tactics and unethical business practices; namely sending cease-and-desist letters and filing lawsuits against pro-Palestinian voices within its workers' union.
While reprehensible, their silencing of protestors was an attempt to clamp down on union activism rather than a pro-Israel stance; in actuality, Starbucks has largely maintained a neutral corporate position on the Palestinian issue itself.
That being said, there are many legitimate ethical concerns with Starbucks worthy of boycott for reasons. These include issues around supply chain management, workers' rights, human rights violations, tax avoidance, environmental impacts, enabling factory farming practices and the investments of former CEO, Howard Schutlz.
Former CEO Howard Schultz's investments in Israeli cyber-surveillance firms like Wiz are also hugely problematic, especially as he has the 6th largest share of Starbucks with 21,795,538 shares (1.93%) valued at $1,991,894,218 as of 18/04/2024 — meaning he is directly benefiting monetarily from Starbucks. With this in mind, the act of visibly consuming Starbucks products has also taken on new symbolic meanings for some Zionist entities and individuals in the current political climate. As efforts to boycott companies complicit in Palestinian oppression gain momentum, publicly committing to consumerism has become a way for certain groups to overtly signal their rejection of such boycotts.
By ostentatiously patronizing Starbucks, certain individuals are attempting to declare their opposition to the non-violent economic pressure tactics employed by the Palestinian solidarity campaigns. This brandishing of Starbucks effectively co-opts the brand into a display of anti-Palestinian ideology, despite the company's official neutrality on the issue.
As such, the simple act of buying a Starbucks drink has been politicized as a statement against Palestinian rights by those who oppose the boycott efforts targeting the Israeli occupation.
Silence = Complicity:
For those who have passionately spoken out against other instances of genocide and massacres, yet fall silent when it comes to the suffering endured by Palestinians, their silence becomes a glaring indictment of the value placed on Palestinian lives and perpetuates a dangerous narrative that suggests Palestinian suffering is somehow less worthy of outrage, less deserving of empathy and less human than that of others.
By choosing silence in the face of Palestinian suffering, those with influential platforms inadvertently contribute to the erasure of Palestinian voices and experiences. They perpetuate a narrative of invisibility that allows the injustices inflicted upon Palestinians to continue unabated, shielded from the spotlight of global scrutiny.
Their silence sends a chilling message of complicity to the world – one that suggests Palestinian lives are expendable, their struggles inconsequential and their humanity negotiable. It emboldens perpetrators of violence and oppression, granting them impunity under the guise of indifference.
To remain silent in the face of Palestinian suffering is to betray the very essence of activism – the relentless pursuit of justice for all, without exception or equivocation. It’s a betrayal not only of the Palestinian people but of the universal principles of human dignity and equality and instead is a tacit endorsement of the dehumanization and marginalization of an entire population.
True activism demands consistency and integrity, an unwavering commitment to speaking truth to power and standing in solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed, regardless of geography or politics.
Tell us why Khaled Mohammed 'DJ Khaled' Khaled should be removed by emailing us at [email protected]
