LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Gigi Hadid has retracted her previous statement criticizing Israel following the ongoing conflict with Hamas after the attacks on October 7.
The supermodel, who had previously criticized Israel for employing broad terms like "terrorists" for Palestinians, has now posted a new statement on her social media account, indicating a change in her stance.
“It is important to me to share the real stories about the hardships that Palestinians have endured and continue to endure, but this weekend I shared something that I did not fact check or deeply think about prior to reposting,” she wrote on Instagram.
What did Gigi say after facing backlash?
The 28-year-old continued, “I wanted to show the ways in which international law is being undermined by the Israeli government. In this case, I was trying to highlight how Palestinian children who are arrested by the IDF are often not given the same rights as an Israeli child accused of the same crime would.”
“Unfortunately, I used the wrong example to make that point and I regret that.”
Scooter Braun, the music mogul, accused Hadid of disseminating falsehoods in her since-deleted post.
He said, “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,” he wrote.
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Bella, Gigi's sister, previously commented on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, stating, "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," she added.
The official social media account of the State of Israel reacted to the model's post and shared an infographic response, reports PageSix.
"There is nothing heroic about Hamas’ massacre of Israelis. Condemning Hamas for what it is (ISIS) is not anti-Palestine, and supporting Israelis in their right against barbaric terrorists is the right thing to do," it read.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, November 28, Gigi further stated, "I do not endorse the dissemination of misinformation, and I have consistently condemned using the Free Palestine movement as a justification for anti-Semitism."
"I owe it to myself and my followers to gather my thoughts and share them in a more constructive way as I pursue my goal of bringing attention to violations of international law and human rights," she added.
