“There is nothing Jewish about Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Condemning the Israel government is not antisemitic and supporting Palestinians is not supporting Hamas.”
A couple of hours later, the State of Israel Instagram account shared a screenshot of Hadid’s post with the text: “Hi Gigi, the next story is for you.” The following slide showed an infographic with the identical colors and font of Hadid’s original post, but the text was altered to read:
“There is nothing valiant about Hamas’ massacre of Israelis. Condemning Hamas for what it is (ISIS) is not anti-Palestine and support Israelis in their fight against barbaric terrorists is the right thing to do.”
The text above that infographic read:
“@gigihadid 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. We see you.”
The final Instagram story the State of Israel account tagged Hadid in, showed a gruesome scene of a child’s coloring book stained in blood, on the floor of a room presumably ransacked by Hamas militants. “@gigihadid If you don’t condemn this your words mean NOTHING” the accompanying text read.
This was Hadid’s second post about the Israel-Hamas war (which does negate the State of Israel account’s claim that she’s been silent). On Wednesday, October 11, she shared a lengthy statement to her Instagram that read, in part: “I have deep empathy and heartbreak for the Palestinian struggle and life under occupation, it’s a responsibility I hold daily. I also feel a responsibility to my Jewish friends to make it clear, as I have before: While I have hopes and dreams for Palestinians, none of them include the harm of a Jewish person.”
Hadid’s younger sister, Bella Hadid, has not yet made a statement, but in the past, she’s posted her support for Palestine and attended protests for Palestinian liberation. The sisters’ father, Mohamed Hadid, was born in Nazareth in 1948, the same year of the Nakba which displaced 700,000 Palestinians. In a 2015 Instagram post, he explained how his family became refugees in Syria. Mohamed reposted the same infographic from @Consent.Wizardry that Gigi did on his feed on Sunday.
Considering how many people of extreme influence are posting about this conflict, it’s unclear why the official government Instagram account of a country at war is making the time to single out one individual woman—whose public statements have been arguably compassionate to both sides of this conflict—other than the fact that she’s of Palestinian descent.
