A Supermodel and Mega-Influencer, Gigi Hadid, Repeats Myth of Israelis ‘Organ Harvesting’ From Palestinians

A model and influencer who has 79 million followers on Instagram, Gigi Hadid, is under fire for sharing a video that accuses Israel of harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians, an apocryphal conspiracy theory. Ms. Hadid, who’s the daughter of a multimillionaire Palestinian-American real estate developer father and a Dutch mother, had previously shared a post celebrating the release of a Palestinian child, who had been convicted of attempting to murder an Israeli in a stabbing attack, as part of the Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange. On Sunday, Ms. Hadid shared a video from a Palestinian activist, Umme Murtaza. In the clip, Ms. Murtaza tells followers to “watch this disturbing video, where health officials admitted that Israeli authorities had harvested the organs of dead Palestinians for years without their consent.”The start of the reel shows Israeli and Palestinian flag emojis with the words “harvesting organs,” implying that Israel is now harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians.The video is a clip from an Israel Channel 2 investigation aired in 2009, which reports that in the 1990s, a rogue Israeli pathologist at the Abu Kabir medical center had been harvesting skin, corneas, heart valves, and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians, and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives. The pathologist, Yehuda Hiss, admitted to the misconduct and was reprimanded. Israeli authorities say that since at least 2000, all organ retrievals are done according to ethical standards and Jewish law and always involve family content.Nevertheless, the organ retrieval story has metastasized into a myth and conspiracy theory, and Ms. Hadid’s framing of the story inferred that Israel’s army directly targets Palestinians in order to supply their bodies to Abu Kabir for harvest. A Yediot Ahronot reporter, Ronen Bergman, one of those who helped break the story, has stated that the claim that Israel had deliberately targeted Palestinians for organ harvesting is a “distorted and falsified” interpretation of the initial investigation. Ms. Hadid’s post about organ harvesting came after a since-deleted Instagram post by the supermodel accused Israel of being “the only country in the world that keeps children as prisoners of war.” Ms. Hadid seemed to be referring to teenage Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israel, often for violent crimes including shooting and stabbing attacks. In the post, she specifically made reference to the 17-year-old convicted terrorist, Ahmed Mansara, who was let go from an Israeli prison as part of this weekend’s exchange.In October 2015, the then 13-year-old Mr. Mansara committed a series of stabbing attacks along with his 15-year-old cousin in Jerusalem. Among the victims was a 13-year-old boy, Naor Shalev ben-Ezra, who was stabbed in the throat by the pair outside a candy store, piercing his subclavian artery. Despite being initially pronounced dead, the body was saved by a team of doctors at the Hadassah Medical Center in what was referred to by the hospital as a miracle procedure. Ms. Hadid’s post, which made no reference to Mansara’s crimes, stated that he had been “abducted” by Israeli officials and “has endured solitary confinement despite his severe health conditions.” The supermodel is now facing backlash from Jewish and Israeli stars for her comments. An Israeli supermodel, Bar Rafeali, posted on her story that Ms. Hadid is the “latest to portray knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist as” a “victim.” A Jewish American music mogul, Scooter Braun, wrote, “I know people mean well but when you say a child was abducted when it turns out it was a teenager who went out and stabbed two random innocent civilians including a 12 year old on camera and then stated ‘I wanted to stab Jews.’ Let’s get our facts right before we post to 78 million people.”Ms. Hadid’s comments are not the first time she has courted controversy for anti-Israel messages. On an Instagram Story shortly after the October 7 terror attacks, the model said, “There is nothing Jewish about the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Condemning the Israeli government is not antisemitic and supporting Palestinians is not supporting Hamas.”Ms. Hadid is the daughter of the real estate tycoon Mohamed Hadid, who was born at Nazareth in what’s now the West Bank. The supermodel’s father had previously visited Israel and stated that he was thankful for being in Israel and that he was having “such a good time” in the Jewish state. However, in recent years, Mr. Hadid, along with his daughter, has become an unrepentant critic of Israel. In 2021, Mr. Hadid likened the Jewish state to Nazi Germany. Ms. Hadid’s sisters, Alana and Bella Hadid, have also been vocal in critiquing Israel. Even though Alana visited Tel Aviv in 2018 and was reported in the celebrity press to have dated an Israeli hair stylist, Elad Idan, she has of late been particularly outspoken in critiquing the Jewish state. On November 19, Alana Hadid was on the podcast of Abby Martin for an hour-long anti-Israel discussion. Ms. Martin is a conspiracy theorist who has expressed doubts about 9/11 and President Kennedy’s assassination. She is also a vocal critic of Israel and has produced films celebrating “Palestinian resistance.” For her part, Bella Hadid has also been vocal in rebuking the Jewish state. In response to the October 7 terror attack, she released a statement condemning Israeli retaliation in Gaza. The supermodel claimed her family was exiled from Israel in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and has endured “75 years of violence.”

A Supermodel and Mega-Influencer, Gigi Hadid, Repeats Myth of Israelis ‘Organ Harvesting’ From Palestinians

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