Palestinian-American supermodel Gigi Hadid has apologised for "not fact-checking" her Instagram post about the Israel-Hamas war. The 28-year-old model of Palestinian descent faced outrage on social media after she accused the Israeli state of a number of crimes against Palestinian children before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
In a recent Instagram post, Ms Hadid clarified her intentions and apologised for using the wrong example. She explained that she was trying to highlight how Palestinian children who were arrested by the IDF are often not given the same rights as an Israeli child accused of the same crime. In her post, she argued that children, whether Israeli or Palestinian, deserve equal human rights.
"As someone of Palestinian descent, the endless heartbreaking news and imagery coming out of Gaza has been painful and often overwhelming. It is important to me to share 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.
"My focus was intended to be on human rights issues. That is why I also want to reiterate that attacking any human, which of course includes Jewish people, is NEVER OK. Taking innocent people hostage is NEVER OK. Harming someone BECAUSE they are Jewish is NEVER OK. It is wrong," Ms Hadid wrote in her length 2-page post.
She further claimed that there have been some legitimate human rights violations by the Israeli government.
"It is well documented, by credible human rights organizations, that there has been systemic mistreatment of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel. I know these historical issues well because they are the history of my own family, Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland in the late 1940s," she wrote. "At the same time, I understand that with the power of my platform comes a huge responsibility. I'm human and I make mistakes. But I also hold myself accountable for those mistakes."
See the post:
"At the same time, I understand that with the power of my platform comes a huge responsibility. I'm human and I make mistakes. But I also hold myself accountable for those mistakes," she added.
Ms Hadid also said that she does not stand behind the "spreading of misinformation, and have always condemned using the Free Palestine movement as 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."
