Israel lobbyists pressure Adidas and Balenciaga to drop Bella Hadid
New York (QNN)- Israel lobby groups are pressuring Adidas and Balenciaga to drop Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid from their campaigns fronting their next collaboration over her pro-Palestine activism.
On October 21, Balenciaga announced it was severing ties with Kanye West over antisemitic remarks. Days later, after an extended silence for which the company came under heavy criticism, Adidas also dropped West.
Less than two weeks after Balenciaga and Adidas dropped West, the luxury label and sportswear giants have chosen Bella Hadid to front their next collaboration.
The news that Hadid would be the face of the collection, which mixes oversized jerseys with luxury handbags, has prompted outrage among anti-Palestinians over Bella’s pro-Palestine views.
Arsen Ostrovsky, the former Israel Affairs Director at the Zionist Council of New South Wales in Australia and CEO of The International Legal Forum, a global network of lawyers which led a campaign calling on Adidas to drop Kanye, claimed the decision to hire Hadid was “the height of hypocrisy.”
“They have simply just replaced one antisemite for another, only underscoring it was never about values or tackling racial hatred for these brands, but only about profits,” Ostrovsky told World Israel News, comparing Hadid to West.
The 26-year-old daughter of Palestinian real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid and Dutch model Yolanda Hadid is vocally pro-Palestine, regularly celebrates her Palestinian heritage with her followers on Instagram and often uses the platform to shed light on Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
In an exclusive interview with Noor Tagouri’s Rep podcast on August 15, Hadid stated that she “had so many companies that stopped working with me. I have friends that completely dropped me,” due to her advocacy for Palestine.
