The NBA player’s profile picture shows a Palestinian child blocked from school by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Published April 22, 2026
Renowned basketball player Kyrie Irving changed his social media profile picture to an image of a Palestinian child who was stopped from going to school by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A photo posted to Irving’s Instagram, where he has 20.2 million followers, shows a young Palestinian boy sitting with a book in his hand, turning to stare at an Israeli soldier standing behind barbed wire directly behind him.
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Earlier this month, Palestinian schoolchildren in Umm al-Khair, in the occupied West Bank, discovered a barbed wire fence blocking their way to school about a kilometer away. Although the barrier was erected by settlers without legal permission, soldiers are refusing to remove it in the community, which faces an imminent Israeli destruction order later this month, citing a lack of building permits. Such permits are rarely granted to Palestinians in West Bank C, which is fully under Israeli control.
When the children, some as young as 5 years old, tried to get around the fence, soldiers fired tear gas and acoustic grenades at them. Shortly after the fence was erected, settlers erected a large stone Star of David on the side of the fence that Palestinian schoolchildren were not allowed to access.
The community then began marching as part of a new initiative, Umm al-Khair Freedom School, with children walking close to the fence, beating drums and singing defiant songs, as soldiers watched meters away.
The children sat for a long time on the rocks next to the barbed wire, took out their books and began working on the schoolwork they had not been given for more than 50 days.
The social media update is not the first time Irving, 34, has expressed support for Palestinians in Gaza.
In February, he attended the NBA All-Star Game wearing a shirt that read “PRESS” to honor journalists covering Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In a pre-match interview in November 2024, he was seen wearing a chain with the Palestinian flag in the shape of Israel’s landmass.
A year ago, he made headlines when he attended a postgame press conference wearing a keffiyeh, a distinctive checkered cotton headdress that represents Palestinian identity in many parts of the Arab world.
Since the declaration of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on October 10, 2025, Israel has carried out almost daily attacks in violation of the agreement, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
According to a report by the Gaza government media office, Israel violated the ceasefire agreement at least 2,400 times from October 10, 2025 to April 14, 2026, by continuing attacks with airstrikes, artillery shells, and direct fire.
Israel also continues to block vital humanitarian aid and continue to destroy homes and infrastructure across the Strip.
