Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Israeli actress Gal Gadot has pledged her $1 million Genesis Prize award toward organizations providing mental health and trauma care in Israel, including for soldiers who took part in the Gaza genocide.
Gadot, who served two years of mandatory military service in the Israeli army, was named the 2026 Genesis Prize laureate. She chose to direct the $1 million award toward Israeli organizations working on mental health and trauma treatment.
The initiative will support 24 Israeli nonprofit organizations.
“After three years of war, loss and extraordinary hardship, I believe recovery starts from within,” Gadot said in a statement. “I want to dedicate these funds to the people who care for others every day.”
The Genesis Prize Foundation described Gadot’s award as recognizing her “moral clarity and unwavering love for Israel.”
Gadot’s military service and public support for Israel have previously drawn criticism and calls for boycotts.
During Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza, she publicly expressed support for Israeli soldiers.
In a 2016 interview with Fashion Magazine, she also said that her military service provided her with training that helped her in Hollywood.
The latest donation has drawn comparisons on social media to the psychological trauma experienced by Palestinian children in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing genocide, with some users contrasting Gadot’s funding for Israeli trauma care with the scale of trauma among Palestinian children.
The Genesis Prize has previously been awarded to figures including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who pressured for rapper Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after Macklemore made pro-Palestine remarks.
Sheeran said venue owners and promoters were responsible for the decision, while Kraft publicly objected to Macklemore performing at Gillette Stadium.
The development comes as other high-profile figures have pledged financial support for Palestinians. YouTube children’s entertainer Ms Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, said she would match Macklemore’s $1 million donation to organizations supporting Palestinians.
Macklemore pledged the entirety of his net earnings from Sheeran’s tour to several organizations supporting Palestinians after he was dropped as the tour’s opening act following his pro-Palestine remarks at a concert in New Jersey.
Accurso said her $1 million donation would go to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and urged other wealthy public figures to make similar contributions.
“Over 20,000 precious Palestinian children have been killed, and children continue to be killed every day,” she wrote on Instagram, adding that people with large platforms have a “moral obligation” to use them to protect children and human rights.
