German sportswear giant Adidas has dropped American model Bella Hadid from its advertising campaign for retro sneakers, after facing criticism from Israel.
Hadid, whose Palestinian father was born in Nazareth, has been a vocal advocate for the rights of the ethnonational group, calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza.
She has repeatedly criticized the Israeli government over the ongoing Gaza conflict, which to date has claimed over 38,000 Palestinian lives. In October 2023, the IDF launched a military operation in the enclave in response to a deadly Hamas raid that had left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead.
Bella and her sister Gigi, also a model with millions of social-media followers, have participated in several pro-Palestinian demonstrations, publicly accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the enclave. The Hadid sisters have also donated $1 million to support multiple Palestinian relief efforts in Gaza, including HEAL Palestine, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, World Central Kitchen, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Recently, the German sportswear giant re-launched its SL72 shoes, which it described as “retro-inspired classics with effortless appeal.”
The sneakers were first showcased during the 1972 Munich Olympics, which are often remembered for a terrorist attack in which eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed by the Palestinian group Black September, which broke into the Olympic village and took them hostage.
“Guess who the face of their campaign is? Bella Hadid, a half-Palestinian model who has a history of spreading anti-Semitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. Adidas responded that the company would be “revising the remainder of the campaign” with immediate effect without giving further details.
“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events – though these are completely unintentional – and we apologize for any upset or distress caused,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP on Friday.
The move to remove Bella Hadid from the campaign has sparked outrage on social media; Candace Owens, a well-known US conservative commentator, called it “gross.”
“You really have some audacity harassing them after the family survived as refugees and a generation later made something of themselves,” Owens replied to the Israeli X post.
“Opposing genocide does not make you anti-Semitic… It makes you human,” another user responded, with several others calling for a boycott of the sportswear company.
Hadid is not the only celebrity to have been dropped by Adidas over alleged anti-Semitic stances. In 2022, the sports giant ended a successful partnership with American rapper Kanye West, known as Ye, over his remarks about Jewish people.