American rapper Azealia Banks announced to her nearly 250,000 followers on X that she is moving to Tel Aviv in order to record a new studio album. She has an upcoming show in Tel Aviv on Thursday, October 8.
Tel Aviv really needs a strikingly handsome and charismatic Mizrahi Mayor to counter Fat Mamdani.
Alot of this blanket Israel hatred can seriously be undone with a bit of theater and rebranding.
A Front facing young Mizrahi guy who speaks well and dressed sharply sending a message across the water that Tel Aviv is cool, hip and accesible to America’s digital nomads, intelligentsia, academics and artists is possibly the highest value thing that can happen for Israel’s image.
NYC311 style advertising and infrastructure could really work. Subsidizing the Gett app, branding Tel Aviv’s taxi/public transport
Can do ALot.Right now Israels image is just old phlegmy jewish guys who look like mr potatohead.
Thats not reflective of the vibrant healthy wildly sexy and cool young people here who have to inherit Israel soon.
Bennett looks like a Gerbil, Eisenkot looks like a hashbrown, Ben Gvir is Patrick Star and Netanyahu is Plankton.
There isnt one relatable front facing person in Israeli Politics, representing real gorgeous Jewish people and that is the biggest thing wrong with all of it.
Alot of chatter and worry about Israels relationship with America going sour and i need to say that the American Public is simply not going to go for any more ugly hasbara.
Bibi neeeeeeeds to cut the purple toupee off,
Ben Gvir hassss to get a Juicer,
We need to see more Amichai Chikli
And Tel Aviv NEEEEDS a star mayor.— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) October 4, 2026
Banks says the country has made her feel “creativity enabled,” and in a series of posts, showed support for Israel and criticized ‘Palestinians’ as “Jews who converted to Islam to keep their land and avoid the Jizya.” She also slammed the Tel Aviv mayor, calling for “Tel Aviv really needs a strikingly handsome and charismatic Mizrahi Mayor to counter Fat Mamdani,” expressing her support for Diaspora Affairs Minister Chikli, writing, “We need to see more Amichai Chikli And Tel Aviv NEEEEDS a star mayor.” and “Right now Israels image is just old phlegmy jewish guys who look like mr potatohead. Thats not reflective of the vibrant healthy wildly sexy and cool young people here who have to inherit Israel soon. Bennett looks like a Gerbil, Eisenkot looks like a hashbrown, Ben Gvir is Patrick Star and Netanyahu is Plankton.”
Moving in. If you would have told me years ago id end up moving to Tel Aviv and liking it, I would have said youre crazy 🤪 🇮🇱 https://t.co/dIDiZ7I0gH
— AZEALIA BANKS (@iiwasinthee212) October 6, 2026
Banks is a supporter of conservative causes in the United States and has voiced support for Republican politicians like President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. She has had a long and often complicated relationship with Israel. She defied BDS pressure to perform in Tel Aviv as early as 2018, and despite later criticizing the country over her experiences during that visit, she emerged as an outspoken Zionist in 2025, publicly declaring “I’m a Zionist” and criticizing efforts to pressure artists into boycotting Israel. She later returned to Israel, visited Yad Vashem and the Nova massacre site, met Israelis and openly celebrated Zionism She also voiced her opinions on Israeli politics, taking conservative positions on Gaza and even suggested the rebuilding of the third temple.
According to Banks, Otzma Yehudit Chairman Itamar Ben Gvir “will build the third temple,” referring to him as “sexy.” She also mocked former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling him a “Gerbil.”