Love Island producers have said they will take no action against high profile contestant Jasmine Gaziza Müller, despite a complaint about her incendiary Instagram posts including the claim Israel should not exist and that it is a “sh*t country”.
Advocacy group UK Lawyers For Israel has written to the broadcaster’s chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall over the material posted by Müller, who has 465,000 followers on the platform.
They said the material, posted between 2021 and 2024, included a graphic stating: “Educate the younger generation. Tell them its [sic] called Palestine not Israel.”
Other posts described Israel as a “colonial project” and “the entity”, while Müller referred to it as a “shit ‘country’” that was “unlawful in everything that it does”.
One photograph showed a sign reading: “No way am I spending eternity in hell with the pro-Israelers!!!”
Müller, 27, who was born in Dubai, has made it through to the final stages of the show and currently is "coupled up" with popular 21-year-old electrician Kavan Murphy.
She and her sister run fashion business Mahila Intimates which “specialises in versatile garments for women”.
In 2021 she dated Spanish footballer Hector Bellerin who plays for Real Betis but started his career at Barcelona before moving Arsenal in 2011.
Numerous members of the viewing public complained to Ofcom when the “Movie Night” episode of Love Island was broadcast, which showed contestants candid clips from conversations they had not previously been aware of.
The complainants claimed other contestants had unfairly targeted Müller.
UKLFI stressed that it was not objecting to advocacy for Palestinian rights and said its concern was with material questioning Israel’s existence and encouraging hostility towards people who support the country.
It asked ITV to treat the matter primarily as a participant welfare issue.
A UKLFI spokesperson said: “This is not about preventing legitimate advocacy for Palestinians or criticism of an Israeli government. It concerns posts that erase Israel altogether and express hostility towards people simply because they support it.
“ITV must urgently assess the implications for other contestants and for its young viewers.”
ITV passed the complaint on to Lifted Entertainment, which produces the hugely popular dating show currently being broadcast nightly on ITV2.
In its written response to UKLFI, Lifted Entertainment said it understood the concerns but was satisfied the programme complied with all its legal and regulatory regulations including Ofcom Broadcasting Codes.
In its letter to UKLFI Lifted Entertainment conceded “Ms Müller’s views, while strong and subject to debate, represent her personal exercise of freedom of speech and have been expressed independently of the programme”.
They added: “Both Lifted Entertainment and ITV do not and would never accept or condone any form of discrimination or racism.
“Our contributors are monitored 24 hours a day and all conversations are recorded. We are confident that there is no indication of any kind of risk to the welfare, wellbeing and dignity of the participants in the programme.”
But UKLFI hit back saying the producers response “fails to engage with the substance of our concerns”.
A spokesperson for UKLFI said: “Ms Müller’s social media posts were not simply robust criticism of Israeli policy: the material included hostility towards ‘pro-Israelers’, denial of Israel’s legitimacy and imagery erasing Israel altogether.
“Describing these posts merely as ‘strong’ personal views and an exercise of free speech is inadequate. Freedom of expression does not oblige ITV to select and promote a contestant, nor does it remove its responsibility to assess the potential impact on Jewish, Israeli and pro-Israel participants and viewers.
“Lifted has not said whether the material was found during its vetting process, whether it was assessed before Jasmine Müller was selected, or what specific welfare consideration was given to those who might reasonably feel targeted by it. General assurances about monitoring inside the villa do not answer those questions.”
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