Big Brother fans have rushed to defend Khaled after a housemate claimed he hadn’t spoken about his Palestinian culture enough amid the ongoing war (Picture: Shutterstock)
A Big Brother housemate has come under fire for comments which were branded ‘evil’ about another star’s Palestinian background.
Nigel Farage-loving pork salesman Nathan left viewers fuming after claiming model Khaled hasn’t spoken enough about his background as a refugee.
During a task in tonight’s episode, 24-year-old Nathan was asked: ‘Who do you think is holding back their true self?’
He replied: ‘I struggled with this one but I’m unfortunately going to go for Khaled.
‘When we’re having a conversation, he maybe spends too long looking at the camera and not at the person sitting across from him.
‘Khaled, I assume, will have a lot of opinions on things that are happening around the world that are maybe close to home for him but I thought he would be more vocal in his thoughts about it.
‘When we spoke about politics and current affairs in the world in Israel or Lebanon, not everyone has to be an outspoken t**t like me and say what they’re thinking and that’s fine, but he’s holding back on his true self by not speaking about it because he’s thinking about the outside potentially.’
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Nathan’s shocking comments have sparked outrage (Picture: Shutterstock for Big Brother)
Khaled was accused of not supporting his people enough because Nathan claimed he hadn’t spoken about his background and culture (Picture: Shutterstock for Big Brother)
‘This is a bit mad, to say that I’m not supporting my people,’ Khaled replied from another room, hearing Nathan’s comments.
Khaled has spoken about his background before, and said ahead of entering the house: ‘I’m Lebanese and Palestinian and I thought this would be a great platform to discuss it from the point of view of someone that grew up in the west and has Middle Eastern heritage.’
The 23-year-old also said that if he won the series he would donate the money to Palestine and Lebanon.
Nathan has come under fire for his ‘absolutely insane’ comments, with viewers fuming over him claiming Khaled hasn’t spoken about his culture and background enough for his liking.
Khaled said he would donate the money if he won to Palestine and Lebanon (Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Shutterstock)
‘What Nathan just said about Khaled was absolutely insane??? What the actual f**k,’ @_g0ldustwoman wrote.
‘That is so f**king evil what Nathan has just said,’ @caljj00 said.
‘Khaled is not sharing enough of his traumatic personal life experiences for Nathan’s liking???’ @WrittenByDavid said.
‘Khaled is a better man than I am because I would be dragging Nathan to his grave,’ @alexr_2411 added.
@eldserks wrote: ‘Nathan is a truly weirdo? Policing a Palestinian man about how they talk about their own experiences is CRAZY.’
Nathan’s comments were branded ‘evil’ (Picture: Shutterstock for Big Brother)
@victoriasanusi added: ‘Still very shocked about what Nathan said about Khaled. Khaled is 23 years old and still continues to show these lot grace, impressive.’
@RyanJL added: ‘There’s no “to be fair to Nathan”. He thought it, he said it. He didn’t make a mistake. He went incredibly low when he didn’t have to and didn’t have the balls to own it when Khaled pulled him on it. Get him out.’
@adoomies3 echoed: ‘Nathan implying that Khaled is not supporting palestine/lebanon because he hasn’t spoken to HIM about it is actually very dangerous. He is a nasty man.’
Later in the episode, Khaled and Nathan spoke about the comments, with the Mancunian telling King Charles’ former butler: ‘If you ever do want to talk about it, I’m more than happy to have that discussion, because from my point of view that was a serious accusation.
‘That was the worst thing to say to someone that is Palestinian, very deep.
‘I’ve spoken about it, me and you have always kept to banter between us so it’s never gotten to that, you’ve never opened up to sensitive things to me.’
‘Clearly my wording wasn’t right,’ Nathan admitted, to which Khaled politely replied that he’d be happy to educate Nathan on the issue further.
Big Brother presenter Will Best has also come under fire for ‘playing devil’s advocate’ when it came to Nathan’s comments, after one guest said it was a ‘low blow’ and made them ‘uncomfortable’.
Will Best came under fire for ‘playing devil’s advocate’ (Picture: Sofi Adams/Shutterstock for Big)
During Late and Live, Will said: ‘Do we think though… to play [devil’s advocate]… I don’t disagree, but do we think he was kind of clutching at straws?’
Will then implied Nathan was using an ‘excuse’ to answer Khaled in the task, and added: ‘Khaled was a grown up in the room, to be fair to Nathan, made a mistake and clearly… held his hands up.’
‘I’m sorry but will trying to defend nathan’s comments about khaled politics has really p**sed me off, what nathan said is indefensible, will doesn’t and shouldn’t have to play devils advocate every f**king time,’ @KINGVILLANELLE fumed on X.
‘Will Best with the excuses for s****y behaviour ONCE AGAIN,’ @valisonh said.
This comes after Big Brother sparked Ofcom complaints over a pro-Palestine T-shirt which was edited out of the episode by ITV.
Ali’s pro-Palestine T-shirt was edited out of Big Brother (Picture: Shutterstock for Big Brother)
Housemate Ali was wearing a Wear The Peace T-shirt in solidarity with Palestine amid the ongoing war, which has killed more than 42,000 people in Gaza since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7.
Ali was wearing the T-shirt which had a watermelon in the shape of the disputed Israel and Palestine territories on a map, with ITV later confirming the episode was edited to remove the image.
Before entering the show, Ali, originally from Leicester, said she believes the way she expresses her opinions could ‘rub someone up the wrong way’.
She said: ‘If someone does something I think maybe isn’t kind, or could have been a bit better thought through, I have this thing where I tend to tell people. I can be quite direct.
‘It doesn’t always land well – that could well get me nominated.’
Big Brother continues tomorrow night at 9pm on ITV2.
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