Zayn Malik of the singing group One Direction recently tweeted #FreePalestine—a message that was favorited 200,000 times and triggered several death threats toward Malik.

He’s the latest in a long line of celebrities who have tweeted about the conflict in Gaza: In almost all instances, a backlash followed, and some celebrity tweeters later apologized or claimed the tweet was a mistake.

Writes Lily Rothman of Time: “No matter what one thinks about Israel, it’s hard to deny that (a) the subject is controversial, and (b) Twitter (or a symbolic accessory, or a product endorsement deal) isn’t exactly a great place to express a nuanced thought about a complicated topic…In a time when people [such as] Malik and Rihanna have a direct line to their legions of fans, they’re all one click away from saying something they don’t really mean, or saying something they think they mean but haven’t really thought through. Safer, then, not to say anything. If the point of being a celebrity is to please fans, it’s pretty clear that Tweeting about Israel is not the way to do it.” (Time)

Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.