Kyrie Irving changes Instagram photo to show solidarity with Palestine

Famed basketball player Kyrie Irving changed his social media profile picture to an image of a Palestinian child blocked from attending school by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The picture on Irving’s Instagram, which boasts 20.2 million followers, shows a young Palestinian boy sitting with a book as he turns around to look at Israeli soldiers standing behind a barbed wire fence just behind him.

Earlier this month, Palestinian schoolchildren in Umm al-Khair, in the occupied West Bank, found a barbed wire fence blocking their route to school roughly 1km (0.6 miles) away. Despite the barrier being erected by settlers without legal authorisation, soldiers have refused to take down the barrier in a community that 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 entirely under the control of Israel.

When the children, some as young as five years old, tried to go around the fence, soldiers launched tear gas and sound grenades at them. Shortly after the fence went up, a large Star of David was built with stones by settlers on the side of the fence that the Palestinian schoolchildren can no longer access.

The community subsequently launched a march as part of a new initiative – “the Umm al-Khair Freedom School” – walking alongside the schoolchildren right up to the fence as the children banged on drums and sang defiant songs while soldiers watched from metres away.

For stretches of time, the children sat down on rocks adjacent to the barbed wire, took out their books and began working on schoolwork they have 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” to honour 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 the Palestine flag in the shape of Israel’s land mass.

A year earlier, he made headlines by attending a post-match news conference wearing a keffiyeh, a cotton headdress with a distinctive chequered pattern 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 near-daily attacks, killing hundreds of people.

Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 2,400 times from October 10, 2025, to April 14, 2026, through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings, the Government Media Office in Gaza reports.

Israel has also continued to block vital humanitarian aid and destroy homes and infrastructure across the Strip.