Children's YouTube star 'Ms. Rachel' talks to anti-Israel reporter about Gaza posts
Children’s YouTube star "Ms. Rachel" appeared on anti-Israel journalist Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo news Monday to explain why she has been so outspoken about Israel’s war against Hamas.
Rachel Griffin Accurso, who goes by "Ms. Rachel" on her popular YouTube channel, which has 14.7 million subscribers, has shared several posts about the war's effects on Palestinian children.
"Over 14,000 precious children have been un-alived in Gaza. Gaza has the largest number of child amputees in history. We can’t be silent about these kinds of conditions for children," Accurso posted to her TikTok channel in Dec. 2024, echoing the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry’s casualty statistics.
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Last month, the Hamas-controlled agency's numbers were revised down by thousands and an analysis of those numbers found that 72% of those killed between the ages of 13 and 55 were males.
"As a teacher, you care about all kids. And I think with so many years of teaching, you just see them all as so similar. They all love to laugh, and they love to learn, and they love to play, and they deserve to play," Accurso told Hasan, who previously worked for Qatar-funded Al Jazeera and MSNBC.
Hasan has been a harsh critic of the Jewish State, accusing the IDF of killing "hungry people" and comparing it to the regimes of Russia's Vladimir Putin and ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
In 2021, Hasan rushed to defend Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who suggested the U.S. and Israel were just as guilty of "war crimes" as terrorist groups like Hamas and the Taliban. He also defended Omar after allegations of antisemitic rhetoric online in 2019.
Critics have asserted that the "Songs for Littles" crooner is not merely speaking out for vulnerable children, but is in fact trying to indoctrinate kids into a far-left, anti-Israel ideology.
Accurso allegedly did not immediately speak out against Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, which saw 38 children killed, seven of whom were between zero and six years old, and 42 children taken hostage.
Instead, she waited until after Israel began its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip 12 days later to issue a statement, according to a column in the New York Post.
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"Her increasingly politicized online presence should concern parents. Ms. Rachel has a moral compass — but it only points leftward," New York Post columnist Bethany Mandel wrote.
The group StopAntisemitism last month urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Accurso to probe whether she is being paid to spread Hamas propaganda, the New York Post also reported.
Ms. Rachel denied the accusations as "absurd" and "completely false," in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"It's sad that someone would take compassion for children suffering immeasurably and try to make it controversial. All of my work grows from my care for all children and wanting them to have everything they need to grow and thrive. They can't do that if they are denied food, safety, medical care or the love and care of their families. In a time of so much division, the more we can see the humanity of people who are different from us, the better," she told Fox News Digital.
Accurso defended her advocacy for children impacted by the war in Gaza to Hasan, saying that as a mother herself, she couldn’t stay silent.
"It’s sad that people try to make it controversial when you speak out for children that are facing immeasurable suffering. I think it should be controversial to not say anything," Accurso said. "The idea that caring for a group of children in an emergency situation means you don’t care about other children is false."