Israel condemns Bella Hadid for 'advocating throwing Jews into the sea' after supermodel shared 'anti-Semitic' post to her 42 million Instagram followers before taking part in pro-Palestine march in NYC
Israel has condemned Bella Hadid is calling for 'throwing Jews into the sea' after the American supermodel sparked allegations of anti-Semitism.
'When celebrities like @BellaHadid advocate for throwing Jews into the sea, they are advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State,' the State of Israel's official Twitter account wrote Sunday.
'This shouldn't be an Israeli-Palestinian issue. This should be a human issue. Shame on you,' along with the hashtag Israel Under Attack.
The tweet showed a screenshot of Hadid streaming to Instagram Live from the protest wearing a traditional dress, a Keffiyeh, and a face mask.
Earlier this week, the supermodel sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid sparked a firestorm over an Instagram post that said Israel was not a country, but rather a land settled by colonizers.
Bella, who has nearly 42 million followers on the platform, published the series of cartoons Wednesday that called Israel 'occupiers' and called Palestinians 'oppressed.'
Her sister Gigi then liked the post, amplifying the cartoons riddled with historic inaccuracies and anti-Semitic tropes to her 66.2 million followers.
Bella Hadid, 24, whose father Mohamed Hadid, is Palestinian, attended protests in Brooklyn on Saturday.
As the Israeli bombing campaign intensified, and Hamas and other militant groups fired rockets into civilian areas, the war for hearts and minds escalated, with celebrities on both sides weighing in to offer their views.
Thousands took to the streets in the United States at the weekend to voice their anger at the ongoing military action being carried out by Israel.
At least 145 people in Gaza and eight in Israel have been killed since the fighting erupted on Monday night.
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Bella Hadid joins with protestors Brooklyn to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in New York on Saturday. The State of Israel accused her of advocating 'throwing Jews into the sea'
The accusations from Israel came after Hadid, pictured wearing a traditional dress, a Keffiyeh, a face mask and waving a large Palestinian flag, shared an anti-Semitic cartoon to her 42 million Instagram followers
The State of Israel's official Twitter account said Hadid was advocating for sending 'Jews into the sea'
Bella Hadid has used her Instagram account - with 42 million followers - to show her support for Palestine
Gigi (left) and Bella Hadid with their father Mohamed, who was born in Palestine in 1948
As Hadid came under fire for posting images that said Israel was not a country, Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, faced backlash and was even forced to disable comments on her post about the conflict between the Israeli military and Hamas.
'My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people,' the 36-year-old Wonder Woman star wrote on Instagram.
'This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same,' she continued.
'I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.'
Despite her statement seeming benign, many social media users objected to her painting the most-recent conflict as a both-sides issue.
Bella Hadid shared the cartoon, with several slides explaining her point, on Instagram. She is wrong to describe Israel as a colony, because Jewish people had already been in the region for centuries. She is incorrect in describing ethnic cleansing and a military occupation, because the redrawing of boundaries was done under UN auspices. She is also incorrect in describing the region as being under apartheid, because Israelis and Palestinians are free to choose their own leaders and live under their own rules.
The woman says that there is no 'fighting' - which fails to acknowledge the fact that Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv and toward Jerusalem early on Thursday, as it has done every day this week since Monday. Israel has responded with an overwhelming show of force. Hamas began the current tit-for-tat barrages, with their firing of rockets on Monday at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, during the fasting month of Ramadan
Controversial post: Gal Gadot, 36, was criticized on social media for a statement shared Wednesday calling for peace in the Israel–Palestine conflict while not addressing the sources of the violence; seen in 2018
No comments: Gadot eventually closed off comments on Instagram after being inundated with criticism for her statement. She also closed comments on a Twitter post of the same statement
In the United States, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in cities across North America on Saturday, calling for an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as the worst violence in years flared between the Jewish state and Islamist militants.
Groups gathered to show solidarity with Palestinians in cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal and Dearborn, Michigan.
About two thousand people turned out in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, chanting 'Free, free Palestine' and 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.'
They waved Palestinian flags and held placards that read 'End Israeli Apartheid' and 'Freedom for Gaza.'
Many protesters wore black and white, and red and white, keffiyeh scarves, while drivers sounded car horns and motorcyclists revved their engines as the sun beat down.
Sobbing selfie: Bella Hadid, 24, posts sobbing selfie and talks about 'deep sense of pain' she feels for Palestine as she continues to takes sides on the geopolitical conflict
Among them in Bay Ridge was Hadid who joined in supporting Palestinians.
Hadid was spotted wearing a traditional dress, a Keffiyeh, a face mask and was waving a large Palestinian flag.
She marched alongside thousands as she flashed a peace sign and waved.
Several Jewish people attended, carrying placards that said 'Not in my name' and 'Solidarity with Palestine' as the protesters took over a street in the area which has a large Arab population.
A few dozen police officers looked on at the peaceful protest, dubbed 'Defend Palestine.
Earlier in the day, Hadid shared a sobbing selfie saying she felt a 'deep sense of pain,' for Palestinians as she continued to take sides — despite many calling her previous social media posts 'mis-informed.'
Hadid posted a closeup of her face with tears streaming down her cheeks as she continued to speak.
'I feel a deep sense of pain for Palestine and for my Palestinian brothers and sisters today and everyday. Watching these videos physically breaks my heart into 100 different pieces.
'You cannot allow yourself to be desensitized to watching human life being taken. You just can't. Palestinian lives are the lives that will help change the world. And they are being taken from us by the second. #FreePalestine'
Her post about the nation state — which was established in 1948 —was said to have inflamed the very fraught situation and contributed to rising anti-semitism on a global scale. Numbers-wise Bella boasts 41.7M Instagram followers — three times the number of Jews in the world.
BOSTON: Thousands gather during a rally to support Palestine at Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts on May 15, 2021
DEARBORN, MICHIGAN: Protestors speak out against the Israeli army in Gaza as well as the forced removal of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem
WASHINGTON D.C.: Jewish demonstrators show their solidarity with Palestinians over the ongoing conflict with Israel
BROOKLYN: People gather in Brooklyn to demonstrate in support of Palestinians in New York City
BROOKLYN: Protests are taking place worldwide against Israel as a result of recently escalated actions towards the Palestinian people
LOS ANGELES: Demonstrators holding signs and the flag of Palestine march to the Israeli Consulate during a protest against Israel and in support of Palestinians during the current conflict in the Middle East, in the Westwood area of LA
LOS ANGELES: Demonstrators holding signs march to Israeli Consulate during a protest against Israel and in support of Palestinians in LA
LOS ANGELES: A demonstrator takes part in a protest outside the Federal Building against Israel and in support of Palestinians in California
NEW YORK CITY: Activists supporting Palestine block traffic on Interstate 278 Saturday, in New York
HOUSTON, TEXAS: People participate in a demonstration at the Houston City Hall on May 15, 2021 in Houston, Texas
HOUSTON, TEXAS: A man leads a chant during a march to the Houston City Hall. The death toll in Gaza continues to rise as the region is seeing the worst outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war
LOS ANGELES: People rally in support of Palestinians near the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles, California
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Sheriff deputies keep watch as people rally in support of Palestinians near the Consulate General of Israel in LA. Tensions have escalated between Israelis and Palestinians, leading to the heaviest offensive in years
LOS ANGELES: People demonstrate in support of Palestine during the Los Angeles Nakba 73: Resistance Until Liberation rally and protest outside the Consulate of Israel in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: A demonstrator performs a backflip outside the Consulate of Israel in LA
HOUSTON, TEXAS: Ahmad El-rifai, 5, participates in prayer at the Houston City Hall on in Houston, Texas. People gathered during a rally to show support for Palestinians facing Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip
'I'm here because I want a Palestinian life to equal an Israeli life and today it doesn't,' said 35-year-old Emraan Khan, a corporate strategist from Manhattan, as he waved a Palestinian flag.
'When you have a nuclear-armed state and another state of villagers with rocks it is clear who is to blame,' he added.
Alison Zambrano, a 20-year-old student, travelled from neighboring Connecticut for the demo.
'Palestinians have the right to live freely and children in Gaza should not be being killed,' she told AFP.
Mashhour Ahmad, a 73-year-old Palestinian who has lived in New York for 50 years, said 'don't blame the victim for the aggression.'
'I'm telling Mr. Biden and his cabinet to stop supporting the killing. Support the victims, stop the oppression.
'The violence committed by the Israeli army recently is genocide,' he added, raising a poster above his head that said 'Free Palestine, End the occupation.'
BROOKLYN: People wave flags during a demonstration in support of Palestine in Brooklyn, New York
LOS ANGELES: People rally in support of Palestinians near the Consulate General of Israel in LA
HOUSTON, TEXAS: People gathered during a rally to show support for Palestinians facing Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip
HOUSTON, TEXAS: A woman leads a chant during a march to the Houston City Hall. People gathered during a rally to show support for Palestinians facing Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip
NEW YORK: An activist supporting Palestine runs with a pro-Palestine sign during a rally on Saturday, May 15, 2021, in New York. The rally supports Palestine in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine on the day Israeli airstrikes leveled several buildings in the Gaza strip
BROOKLYN: Activists supporting Palestine block traffic on Interstate 278 Saturday in New York
People block the Gowanus Expressway during a Nakba Day Defend Palestine protest in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
The Gowanus Expressway was blocked because of the protests on Saturday night
Palestinian protestors folded arms in what was a peaceful protest
The Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, has a large Arabic-speaking community
Some protesters walked onto Interstate 278 shutting down traffic in at least in one direction
The marches coincided with Nakba Day, which commemorates the 1948 displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians amid Israel's declaration of independence
Some religions Jews also appeared to show support for the Palestinian community
Thousands rally in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to stand with Palestinians calling for the end of what they see as an illegal occupation by Israel
President Joe Biden spoke separately Saturday with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, expressing his 'grave concern' over six days of violence that has left scores dead or wounded.
He expressed Washington's 'strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best path to reach a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,' the White House said.
The protests were held on the anniversary of Nakba Day, or 'catastrophe,' that saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during Israel's creation in 1947-1948.
Throngs of people gathered in Copley Square in Boston, while a few hundred rallied on the Washington Monument grounds in the US capital.
Several thousand demonstrated in Montreal, calling for 'the liberation of Palestine.'
Protesters also denounced 'war crimes' committed by Israel in Gaza and carried placards accusing Israel of violating international law during the protest in the center of the Canadian city.
Earlier, a caravan of cars sounded their horns and drove with Palestinian flags blowing in the wind as they protested outside the Israeli consulate in the western part of Montreal.
A protester was arrested for breaking a window, a police spokesperson said, but otherwise the demonstration was peaceful.
A Palestinian man looks for belongings to salvage in a damaged building following Israeli air strikes in Gaza
Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli forces across the West Bank
Israeli soldiers take aim during clashes with Palestinian protesters in the city center of Hebron in the occupied West Bank
Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepts rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday night
Israeli security forces and emergency services work on a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ramat Gan
Israeli beachgoers rush towards shelters in the central city of Tel Aviv on May 15 following the launching of rockets from the Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement towards Israel
Israeli beachgoers pictured going towards shelters in Tel Aviv. Israel, which is also trying to contain an outbreak of internal Jewish-Arab violence, is facing its bloodiest conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war
Smoke billows as an air bomb is dropped on the Jala Tower during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, said: 'It's terrible, very sad, to target the Al Jazeera and other press bureaux'
This picture taken from the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon shows rockets fired from the Gaza Strip being intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system , on May 15, 2021
This picture taken from the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon shows rockets fired from the Gaza Strip being intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system , on May 15, 2021
A thick column of black smoke rises from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on May 15
Families who live in Jala Tower, a high-rise housing AP and other media offices, flee the building before Israeli airstrikes on Saturday, May 15
A ball of fire erupts from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed on May 15. Israeli air strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing 10 members of an extended family and demolishing a key media building
Dust settles following the destruction of the Jala Tower in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Saturday afternoon, May 15
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