Canadian pop singer Shawn Mendes took a moment during his concert in Lisbon, Portugal, to lament over the devastation in Gaza and to warn that those troubles are no excuse to target Israelis with antisemitic hatred.

The “If I Can’t Have You” singer has never spoken out about these issues before and has generally avoided making political pronouncements in his career. But he told fans that he finally felt the need to speak out.

“What’s been happening in Gaza has been absolutely breaking my heart, and turning pain and suffering into hatred towards Jewish people as a whole is wrong,” he told his fans. “Turning pain and suffering into hatred, period, is wrong and it’s not the way.”

The singer is a Portuguese native and is not Jewish.

“I really believe in our generation,” Mendes added. “I fe

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