BRADFORD superstar Zayn Malik has received a backlash of abusive messages after posting a Twitter message in support of Palestine.

The One Direction star, who was brought up a Muslim, posted the message "#FreePalestine" to his 13 million followers, and the Tweet was shared more than 150,000 times.

But among the abusive responses on the micro-blogging site were messages telling him to "go kill yourself", calling him "ignorant" and accusing him of supporting terrorists.

Another said: "I'm so disappointed in you! You have fans in Israel, it's disgusting!"

The heartthrob is not the first popstar to support the pro-Palestine campaign on Twitter, with singer Rihanna tweeting #FreePalestine earlier this month.

She deleted the tweet shortly afterwards.