Monitoring Desk
NEW YORK: Days later, American supermodel Gigi Hadid, of Palestinian roots, retracted her social media posts, against Israel, the only country that ‘keeps children as prisoners of war’ and offered an apology for not checking the facts.
Supermodel Gigi Hadi, who is of Palestinian descent from her father, Mohamed Hadid, and has been a staunch supporter of the ‘Free Palestine’ movement, had taken to her Instagram handle recently, sharing a post about a young Palestinian prisoner, Ahmad Manasra, 22, who was arrested at the age of 13.
“Ahmed Al-Manasra, abducted by the Israeli occupation at the age of 12, has endured solitary confinement despite his severe health condition. Hundreds of Palestinian children remain detained, suffering in [an] Israeli jail,” read the post re-shared by Hadid, to which she had added, “Israel is the only country in the world that keeps children as prisoners of war. ABDUCTION, RAPE, HUMILIATION, TORTURE, MURDER OF PALESTINIANS YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS BEFORE October 7 2023.”
However, following the pressure from pro-Israel groups to withdraw her post, Hadid deleted the previous story.
Moreover, Gigi Hadid took to her Instagram handle on Tuesday, offering an apology as she admitted the failure on her end in not checking the facts. She wrote, “As someone of Palestinian descent, the endless heartbreaking news and imagery coming out of Gaza has been painful and often overwhelming.”
She continued, “It is important to me to share real stories about the hardships that Palestinians have endured and continue to endure, but this weekend I shared something that I did not fact-check or deeply think about prior to reposting. I wanted to show the ways in which international law is being undermined by the Israeli government. In this case, I was trying to highlight how Palestinian children who are arrested by the IDF are often not given the same rights as an Israeli child accused of the same crime would.”
Hadid added, “My focus was intended to be on human rights issues. That is why I also want to reiterate that attacking any human, which of course includes Jewish people, is NEVER OK. Taking innocent people hostage is NEVER OK. Harming someone BECAUSE they are Jewish is NEVER OK. It is wrong. To want freedom and humane treatment for Palestinians and to also want safety for Jewish people can both be important to the same person – including myself,” Hadid stated. “And a Palestinian child, even if he is accused of a horrific crime, deserves the same rights that an Israeli child would have under the same circumstances. It is well documented, by credible human rights organizations, that there has been systemic mistreatment of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel. I know these historical issues well because they are the history of my own family, Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland in the late 1940s.”
In her post, Hadid also mentioned, “Unfortunately, I used the wrong example to make that point and I regret that. I’m human and I make mistakes, But I also hold myself accountable for those mistakes.”
This move by Hadid however did not go down well with her followers supporting the Free Palestine movement and accused the supermodel of caving into the pressure from her ‘Zionist friends’.
“Gigi Hadid disgracefully caved to Zionist pressure and slandered Ahmad Manasra, I campaigned for Canada to pressure Israel to release him over the last year,” an X user penned, while another advised her to “Stop spending more time condemning antisemitism than discussing Palestinian massacres.”
