John Legend. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Award-winning singer and songwriter John Legend criticized Israel for what he called the country’s mistreatment of Palestinians during his appearance Sunday night on “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”

The “All of Me” singer told Hasan, “When I see what’s happening in Palestine to the Palestinian people, where they are clearly not being able to experience the full rights that they deserve, it’s an extremely unfair difficult life they’re forced to live. It’s not fair; it’s not just.”

Legend, who is also a judge on the singing competition “The Voice,” then called on the US to hold Israel “to a higher standard” in light of the fact that the Jewish state is “the recipient of so much American aid and support and is named one of our stronger allies.”

“What [Israel is] doing to the Palestinian people is not fair and should not be done in our name and with our resources contributing to it,” the father-of-two concluded by saying.

“I had to say something. It’s not fair,” @JohnLegend tells @MehdiRHasan why he spoke out in support of the Palestinian people. “They’re clearly not being able to experience full rights that they deserve … We should hold [Israel] to a higher standard.” pic.twitter.com/HAryspSZdS

— The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) September 20, 2021

Legend, who tweeted “Palestinian Lives Matter” during the Israel-Hamas conflict in May, has made several claims in the past about Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians. When asked about his position on the Palestinian territories in Israel during a live podcast recording with Hasan in 2020, the “Ordinary People” singer said, “There should not be a whole group of people in a country, because of their nationality or religion, being held in open-air prisons, denied freedom of movement and having their land annexed by settlers … that’s just a human position.”

In 2019, he defended US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar against accusations of antisemitism and discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on HBO‘s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”