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Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan has garnered immense backlash online after sharing his opinions on the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. On October 17, the renowned writer took to his official blog to share his experience of attending the Boston Book Festival and New York Comic Con.
Prior to addressing the same, he opined on the Middle East conflict, which left netizens enraged.
On December 3, X user @folkoftheshelf took to the social networking site to list authors who must be boycotted for supporting Israel. Some popular Young Adult fiction writers on the list included Sarah J Mass, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Lynn Painter, Christina Lauren, J K Rowling, Rececca Yarros, Lauren Wise, Lillian Harris, Jay Shetty, Nicholas Sparks, and Rick Riordan.
Riordan's inclusion in the list has put his October blog post under the limelight once again.
The post had amassed over 1.5 million views at the time of writing this article.
Netizens took to attacking Riordan after he extended support to both the countries in his blog post. The author claimed that he was "appalled" by the attack on Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. He went on to add that his "thoughts" were with everyone who lost their loved ones and for those whose worlds and lives have been "shattered," especially those of children.
"Neutrality and wording of his post is appalling": Netizen puts Rick Riordan on blast as blog post goes viral
X user and pro-Palestine activist @r_blankk took to the social networking site on October 23 to discuss the alleged faults in Riordan’s post. They noted that although the writer was advocating for humanity and peace:
“As much as rick advocates for peace and the humanitarian side, the neutrality and wording of his post is appalling and reeks of privilege and ignorance.”
Expanding on the same, the netizen believed that the writer should not have shown support to Israel and Palestine. In his blog, Riordan wrote:
“The only real solution is treating each other like equally worthy human beings, and negotiating a peace that allows all parties a chance to live in security and dignity, with hopes for a future that does not include bombs and rockets and gunfire. This means security and support for Israel, yes. It also means a secure Palestine which is allowed to get the international aid and recognition it needs to build a viable state.”
The netizen also believed that Rick Riordan’s call for humanitarianism portrayed him as being “neutral” to “Israel and genocide.” This comes after the author wrote:
“And when asked whose side I am on, I will tell you I am on the side of humanitarianism.”
Several other netizens took to the social networking site to condemn Rick Riordan for not supporting Palestine. A few other tweets read:
As Rick Riordan continues to face the internet's wrath, ardent Percy Jackson fans are looking forward to the release of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians television series, which is scheduled to release on December 20 on Disney+.
