Model Gigi Hadid has taken to social media in an attempt to walk back her decision to share multiple false allegations — posted over weeks to her 79 million Instagram followers — against Israel including the claim it is the “only country in the world” holding children as prisoners of war.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Hadid highlighted Palestinian Ahmad Manasra as an example of the malfeasance she blamed on Israel during its ongoing battle with Hamas terrorists.
As Breitbart News reported, in the original post she accused Israel of “abduction, rape, humiliation, torture, murder of Palestinians years and years before Oct. 7, 2023.”
She featured a photo of Manasra at 13 — the age he was when he went on a stabbing spree in 2015 — and a recent image of the convicted attempted murderer.
Manasra critically wounded two Israelis and was ultimately sentenced to 9 1/2 in prison.
Absolutely despicable.
Gigi Hadid just posted the below to her millions of followers falsely accusing Israel of abducting, torturing, raping children.
Her example was Ahmed Almansara.
Here is video of Ahmed and his cousin running through a Jewish settlement looking for… pic.twitter.com/LQOhDUbQc8
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 24, 2023
Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, shared a statement with her Instagram followers on Tuesday, in which she sought to backpedal on her reasons for sharing the offensive post and offer regrets for her actions.
“As someone of Palestinian descent, the endless heartbreaking news and imagery coming out of Gaza has been painful and often overwhelming,” she began. “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 [Israel Defense Forces] are often not given the same rights as an Israeli child accused of the same crime would. Unfortunately, I used the wrong example to make that point and I regret that.”
California-born Hadid continued 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.”
After insisting she does not “stand behind the spreading of misinformation,” and opposes antisemitism, Hadid said she “will continue to pray for the safe return of all hostages and peace and safety for the people of Gaza and Israel.”
Leftist political activist and supermodel Gigi Hadid admitted her privileged upbringing is what led to her success as a model, stating, "I'm a nepotism baby." https://t.co/xKy9HCNAFf
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 7, 2023
Her clarification came after a similar furore erupted in October when she took to her Instagram Stories to respond to attack Israel’s government in the wake of the mass murder of Jews by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, as Breitbart News reported.
In her post, Hadid shared a statement, which read, “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.”
The State of Israel’s official Instagram account responded to Hadid’s post, asking, “Have you been sleeping this past week? Or are you just fine turning a blind eye to Jewish babies being butchered in their homes?”
“Your silence has been very clear about where you stand,” they added. “We see you.”
In their post, the State of Israel also shared a mirror image of Hadid’s meme, but with a different message:
There is nothing valiant about Hamas’ massacre of Israelis. Condemning Hamas for what it is (ISIS) is not anti-Palestine and supporting Israelis in their fight against barbaric terrorists is the right thing to do.
In a follow-up post, Israel’s government shared an image of children’s toys and clothing alongside a bloodied floor, writing, “If you don’t condemn this your words mean NOTHING.”
These examples are not the first time Hadid has faced backlash for her anti-Israel remarks, as Breitbart’s Alana Mastrangelo noted.
Last year, the leftist was slammed for comparing the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Israeli actress Noa Tishby described as “co-opting a global tragedy in order to spread lies about Israel.”
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