While the singer’s mother may literally have stood with her daughter at the Wall and on the trip, the last hashtag, #istandwithdemi, is ironic, given that Lovato posted (and then deleted) an apology to those she may have offended – presumably BDS activists and others who criticized her for ignoring the Israel-Palestinian conflict and posting enthusiastically about what she saw and felt in Israel.
In her deleted apology, Lovato pleaded that she had “accepted a free trip to Israel in exchange for a few posts,” and that “no one told me there would be anything wrong with going or that I could possibly be offending anyone.”While Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin said on Thursday that his ministry paid about NIS 200,000 to finance the trip, it turns out it takes more than that to bring such a popular entertainer (Lovato has over 74 million followers on Instagram) and her entourage, including her mother, to Israel for two weeks. The rest was apparently paid by a private individual who is keeping his or her identity a secret.While the Twitterverse is buzzing with claims that Lovato was paid $150,000 to make the trip – based on a report by Ynet – there is no evidence that this is true.Once the social media frenzy over her visit dies down, Lovato can go back to speaking out on issues she knows more about, like body image and the kind of bathing suits she favors (leopard print bikinis trimmed in green), which she posted about just before her controversial trip.