Social media haunted by eerie resemblance between burnt Los Angeles and Gaza

 Social media is rife with similarities between pictures of Gaza and the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles, ravaged by wildfires. 

The California fire dubbed the Greater Los Angeles wildfire, has burnt more than ten thousand structures and taken ten lives so far. Pictures coming out of the American city show large properties, including the mansions of Hollywood celebrities, burnt to ashes with no trees in sight. 

The photos reminded internet users of the destruction in Gaza carried out by Israel. 

A user by the name of Biker Niqabi reposted the viral picture of one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in LA, Pacific Palisades, which had been completely burnt down. The user captioned it, “I’ve been seeing pictures like this or worse from neighbourhood after neighbourhood in Gaza every single day for more than a year now, but it’s only worthy of being recognized as horrible if it’s happening to a wealthy western neighbourhood, I guess.”

Another user compared the LA neighbourhood to Palestine. “Palisades looks like Palestine rn [right now]. Even the names being slightly similar is making me uncomfortable.”

Leslie replied to this by posting, “Impossible to see this image and not think of what Palestinians have been enduring for the last 15 months.”

However, without mincing words, another Twitter user  posted a GIF which stated, “God don’t like ugly.” She captioned the post by pointing out the complicity of the American government in the genocide in Gaza: “Their government is funding genocide in Gaza and in support of Israel with their full chest…see their little Gaza now!! Their government is involved in every aspect of evil in the world……”

A netizen mentioned, “It almost looks like it was bombed by Israel for a year.”

A tweet urged the US government to learn from the lesson of “mother nature” and “stop funding the genocide in Gaza.”

On the other hand, some also found these comparisons unfair, as TV host Aleena Farooq Sheikh posted on Instagram, "We’re all hurt and bleeding for Palestine and Syria but those celebrating LA fires and calling it karma should seriously introspect. Never gloat over anyone’s misery/misfortune even if they’re your worst enemy.” 

Notably, renowned American actress and producer Jamie Curtis, who was born and raised in LA, also spoke about the astonishing similarity of visuals coming out of the burnt estates in LA with that of Gaza and other “war-torn countries”.  

Speaking at an event she said, “The entire Pacific Palisades looks like, you know, unfortunately, Gaza or one of these war-torn countries where awful things have happened.”