Bella Hadid (Isabella Khairiah Hadid) is a Palestinian-Dutch model who was born on October 9, 1996, in Washington, D.C., to Dutch model Yolanda Hadid and Palestinian real estate developer Mohamed Hadid. She is praised for being one of the most vocal public figures who supports Palestine.
The Nakba, or “the Catastrophe,” in which Zionist militias drove more than 700,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine and destroyed almost 500 communities to make way for the establishment of Israel, caused Bella Hadid’s father’s family to leave Palestine.
Mohamed Hadid lost his Safad home to a Jewish family at the time and fled to Syria as a refugee.
Hadid claims she is proud of her history and frequently utilizes her position to spread awareness of the Israeli occupation despite her distance from her Palestinian family. She also thinks a lot about her family and the struggles they have faced.
Bella Hadid frequently makes headlines when she criticizes social media sites like Instagram for removing her postings on Palestine.
The 25-year-old model spoke candidly about her Muslim and Arab origins as well as her ongoing support for the Palestinian cause in a joint interview with Egyptian-American actor Ramy Youssef for GQ magazine.
She says, ‘I had so many companies that stopped working with me… I have friends that completely dropped me.’
Hadid regretted not having grown up around Muslims and having the opportunity to embrace Islam throughout her formative years while living apart from a Muslim community in Santa Barbara. When Hadid moved to California and felt “extracted” from her Palestinian side of the family, she referred to her parents’ divorce in 2000.
In reference to her Arab ancestry, she added, “For so long I was missing that part of me, and it made me really, really sad and lonely.”
When she was a child, Hadid says, “I would have loved to grow up and be with my dad every day and studying and really being able to practice [Islam], just in general being able to live in a Muslim culture,” But I didn’t get that, Hadid added.
The model appeared in a New York Times advertisement from the previous year that seemed to associate her with the Hamas movement. The advertisement also included Grammy-winning singer Dua Lipa and Bella’s sister Gigi.
Bella Hadid has stated that she will use her fame to further the cause of the Palestinian people, even if it comes down to putting her modeling career on the line.
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