(RepublicanJournal.org) – Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 hasn’t just triggered a war in the Middle East; it’s also unleashed a flood of hostility and online abuse around the world. Many people have responded to the atrocity by expressing shocking views. Model Gigi Hadid is the latest to land herself in hot water over her comments on the subject.
Gigi Hadid is one of the world’s best-known and highest-paid models. She also has Palestinian ancestry on her father’s side. In 2017, she protested against former president Donald Trump’s restrictions on citizens from terrorist-sponsoring states entering the US. Hadid has combined modeling and acting with political activism for years, and leans strongly to the left; last year she attracted criticism for comparing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the long-running dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Now she’s gone further — and sparked a furious rebuke from the Jewish State.
On October 14, Hadid shared a meme on Instagram; the post carried a message claiming “There is nothing Jewish about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians,” and argued that opposing Israel isn’t anti-Semitic and supporting the Palestinians isn’t being pro-Hamas. The next day, the official Israeli government Instagram account fired back with a meme of its own, which said, “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.” Just in case that didn’t make the point strongly enough, Israel quickly followed up with another post showing the blood-smeared floor of a murdered Israeli child’s bedroom; the caption told Hadid that if she didn’t condemn this, “your words mean NOTHING.”
While most Western governments were quick to support Israel’s right to self-defense after the massacre, some left-wing activists have sided with the Palestinians instead — even before Israel retaliated, which makes their claims of being pro-Palestinian but not pro-Hamas dubious.
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