American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid, has sparked outrage after using Instagram to call for the elimination of Israel, echoing antisemitic rhetoric that denies the Jewish state’s right to exist, reports Jewish News Syndicate.
In a post on Wednesday, Hadid shared an image declaring: „We no longer demand a ceasefire. We demand an end to the state of Israel. A state that produces such violence is one that should not exist.”
Another image in the same post showed demonstrators carrying a placard reading: „You only target journalists when your enemy is the truth.”
Supporters quickly amplified the message in the comments, with replies such as: „End Zionism and restore world peace!!!” and „From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.”
Hadid, 76, has a long record of anti-Israel statements. Born in Nazareth in 1948, his family fled to Lebanon during Israel’s War of Independence and later resettled in Damascus before moving to Washington, D.C. when he was a teenager.
In April 2024, The New York Post reported that Hadid had harassed U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a gay Afro-Latino supporter of Israel, with racist and homophobic messages. In one direct message, Hadid told Torres: „You’re worse than the rats of the New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as a bouncer at a gay bar.” In another, he called the congressman a „slave to whites” and a „colourful mouth for Israeli and AIPAC.”
Jewish organisations have repeatedly warned that calls to dismantle Israel, combined with racist abuse of Jewish allies, are expressions of antisemitism that fuel hostility against Jewish communities worldwide.
Photo credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret
More News
