Profile image of NBA player A Palestinian child is prevented from going to school by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
Published on 22 April 2026
Famous basketball player Kyrie Irving changed his social media profile picture to a picture of a Palestinian child who was barred from going to school by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The photo on Irving’s Instagram, which has 20.2 million followers, shows a young Palestinian boy sitting with a book when he turns around and sees Israeli soldiers standing behind a barbed wire fence right behind him.
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Earlier this month, Palestinian schoolchildren in Umm al-Khair in the occupied West Bank observed a barbed wire fence blocking their way to school about 1 km (0.6 mi) away. Despite the barriers being erected by settlers without legal permission, soldiers have refused to remove the barriers in the community, which faces imminent Israeli demolition orders later this month due to a lack of building permits. Such permits are rarely granted to Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, which is completely under Israeli control.
When children, some as young as five years old, tried to go around the fence, soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades at them. Shortly after the fence went up, a large Star of David was built from stones by settlers on the side of the fence, which Palestinian schoolchildren can no longer reach.
The community later began a march as part of a new initiative – the “Umm al-Khair Freedom School” – with schoolchildren walking up to the fence, children playing drums and singing rebel songs, while soldiers watched from meters away.
For a time, children sat on rocks bordered by barbed wire, took out their books and began working on school work they had been deprived of for more than 50 days.
The social media update was not the first time Irving, 34, has voiced support for Palestinians in Gaza.
In February, he attended an NBA All-Star Game wearing a shirt that read “Press” in honor of journalists covering Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In a pre-game interview in November 2024, he was seen wearing a chain with a Palestine flag in the shape of Israel’s land mass.
A year earlier, she made headlines at a post-match news conference wearing a keffiyeh, a distinctive checkered patterned cotton headdress worn in many parts of the Arab world that represents Palestinian identity.
Since the declaration of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025, Israel has violated the agreement with almost daily attacks, killing hundreds.
Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 2,400 times, continuing attacks with air, artillery and direct fire from October 10, 2025, to April 14, 2026, the government media office in Gaza reported.
Israel also continues to block vital humanitarian aid and destroy homes and infrastructure throughout the Strip.
