#BlockOut24 is a social movement followed by social media users that collectively block and unfollow influencers who have failed to utilise their platform to educate their followers on Palestine.

A significant amount of followers blocking an influencer results in the decline of their followers, which reduces their social media platform, decreases engagement and causes financial suffering.

This movement was spiked during the 2024 MET Gala, in which people were astonished by the current contrast of events in the world.

The MET Gala, formally known as the Costume Institute Gala, is a frivolous fashion event held every year as a fundraiser for the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.

This high-end, extravagant event was labelled as pretentious contrasting with the mass genocide happening in Palestine.

With suffering happening in the world where children are dying and Palestinians are being displaced, the contrast in Influencers flaunting their wealth for the MET Gala reveals the prevalent issue in society that they are detached from these social issues.

An example of the MET Gala being an event to flaunt wealth is the cost of what celebrities pay to go and dress the part.

According to an article by the BBC, "An individual ticket goes for around $75,000 (£60,000)".

In 2022, Kim Kardashian famously wore the most expensive dress in the world to be auctioned. It was Marilyn Monroe's iconic dress that she wore to sing 'Happy Birthday' to JFK (designed by Jean Louis), which was 'sold for $4.8 million at a Julien's Auction sale' in 2016.

These examples of detaching from social issues, (prevalent in the MET Gala) caused their social media followers to block them in the hope of reducing their platform, as it was noted that they were using their power incorrectly.

But what is happening between Israel and Palestine?:

There is an ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians surrounding land disputes.

On October 3rd tensions escalated, with Hamas launching its biggest attack on Israel in years, which resulted in killing at least 250 people and 1590 wounded.

Hamas did this in an operation to reclaim back their land.

In response to this, Israel fought back and continues responding with attacks, fuelling mass genocide

Israel has killed as of the 29th of April 2024, over the past 7 months:

34,488 innocent Palestinians
14,500 of them have been children and 9,500 women
77,643 also injured, 75% estimated to be female

A current example of ongoing genocide:

On the 26th of May, Israel used an airstrike that hit Tel al-Sultan in Rafah, killing around 45 people as the area was used by displaced Palestinians living in tents.

Image 1: Aftermath of the Israeli strike in Rafah

Image 2: The strike happened in the Tel al Sultan neighbourhood of Western Rafah

With these tragic events happening in the world, the Western media focuses their attention more on publishing stories about Influencers e.g. The MET Gala, rather than the tragic events happening in Palestine.

This blog does not support the killings of innocent people from both Palestine and Israel and strives for world peace.

I will continue to use my platform to educate others on this topic as Western media outlets often label Palestinians as terrorists and fail to use their platform to educate others about the horrific events happening in Palestine.

With #BlockOut2024, Celebrities/Influencers noticed their risk of losing their platform and after 7 months, they started to use their platform to share the tragic events happening in Palestine.

Whilst we should not seek comfort or a need for Influencers to share their political opinions because as a society we should be confident in political opinions of our own, Influencers must recognise Palestine to force them into involving themselves in social issues.