Gigi Hadid faced backlash on social media after she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post to her 79.1 million followers that Israel is “the only country in the world that keeps children as prisoners of war.”
According to i24news, the Palestinian-American model also declared that Israel is responsible for the “abduction, rape, humiliation, torture, [and] murder of Palestinians years and years before Oct. 7, 2023.”
Hadid’s post included a picture of Ahmad Mansara, a Palestinian prisoner who was 13 years old when he was convicted for his role in the stabbing of two Israelis in East Jerusalem in 2015. Mansara was convicted on two counts of attempted murder and received a prison sentence of 9.5 years. Hadid claimed that Mansara was “abducted” by Israeli officials and “has endured solitary confinement despite his severe health condition.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The model’s post came as Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary truce that has resulted in the release of three groups of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has expressed the desire to extend the agreement after the four-day period elapses.
Fellow supermodel Bar Refaeli, who is Israeli, criticized Hadid for referring to a “knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist as victim in a series of false claims.”
Music executive Scooter Bruan also weighed in, writing, “I know people mean well but when you say a child was abducted when it turns out it was a teenager who went out and stabbed two random innocent civilians including a 12 year old on camera and then stated ‘I wanted to stab Jews.’ Let’s get our facts right before we post to 78 million people.”
Hadid and her sister, Bella, have incited some outrage for their statements denouncing Israel.
Last month, Hadid posted a message on her Instagram story that said, “There is nothing Jewish about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Condemning the Israeli government is not antisemitic and supporting Palestinians is not supporting Hamas.”
She also reshared a video on Instagram that, according to Newsweek, claimed “health officials admitted that Israeli authorities had harvested the organs of dead Palestinians for years without their consent.”
