In a moment that feels both hopeful and yet falls short, Ms Rachel has been named a Glamour Woman of the Year for 2025.
Like me, anyone with a pre-school aged child will most probably have already held Ms Rachel as a personal hero and extended member of the household, but her unabashed and constant advocacy for the Palestinian cause in recent months — particularly for the plight of the children in Gaza — has catapulted her from beloved children’s star to one of the most consistent critics of Israel’s bloody genocide in an industry of figures who default to silence in the name of staying apolitical.
Yet while this moment deserves celebration, it also prompts reflection on the gap between symbolic recognition and the hard, irreplaceable and much less glamourised work of justice and liberation.
After all, the very same media outlets that might now be jumping on the bandwagon to praise Ms Rachel’s support for Gaza have themselves long been perpetuating the very narratives that have allowed Israel’s oppression of Palestinians to reign for decades.
The blanket acquiescence that Western mainstream media affords to Israel has been a critical tool in the manufacturing of consent for occupation and genocide, and honouring Ms Rachel’s bravery doesn’t replace media platforms themselves doing the work to hold Israel to account.