Bella Hadid’s fans are mad at Dior due to an unverified rumor

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Supermodel Bella Hadid has been outspoken in her support of Palestine, attending a Free Palestine protest this week and attracting direct criticism from the state of Israel.

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Now, Hadid’s fans are worried that her career will suffer as a result. They’re particularly concerned about Dior allegedly “terminating her contract,” inspiring a slew of furious viral tweets. However, this backlash is entirely based on unverified rumors. There’s no evidence that Dior has ended its relationship with Hadid, who often models for the brand.

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If Bella Hadid lost a Dior contract for supporting Palestine and standing against apartheid, then Dior can go burn in Marshall’s. — Mia K. (@miakhalifa) May 19, 2021

bella hadid was banned from dior.

dior is the one who need her lol — lolemir🇵🇸 (@eizzmag) May 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/Syaifaa_moon/status/1395244937222844418

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Hadid’s fans are keen to show their support for the model, who is of Palestinian and Dutch descent. But the anger at Dior seems to be unfounded.

The Dior rumor emerged on Wednesday, beginning on TikTok before gaining traction on Twitter. One tweet with 39,000 retweets states that Hadid is “being silenced, got her brand deals taken away from her including her dior brand and her family’s address is being exposed,” citing an unverified TikTok video saying Hadid was “banned from Dior.” Meanwhile, others are sharing an out-of-context video of a Bella Hadid poster being taken down in a Michael Kors store, taking this as evidence that Hadid was “fired” by this brand as well.

In reality, the Michael Kors homepage literally opens with a full-page commercial featuring Hadid. She’s the face of the label’s summer ad campaign. However, people are still replying to the Michael Kors Twitter account to accuse the brand of supporting Israeli attacks on Palestine.

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As with a lot of viral rumors on social media, the Dior/Hadid backlash feels plausible without actually being based in fact.

People believe there’s something sinister behind Bella Hadid’s sudden ‘neutrality’ on Palestine

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Model Bella Hadid appeared at the forefront of the tiny Hollywood fraternity vocal against the atrocities sanctioned by the Israeli state on the Palestinian people. She participated in a pro-Palestine protest in NYC — shouting slogans, Keffiyeh on her head, flag in her grip — and has been furiously posting about the human rights violations on social media. But a noticeable shift in her position has left fans stunned.

She posted a now deleted Instagram Story and tweet where she called for “peace, co-existence and equality”, with accompanying flags of the two states, Israel and Palestine.

This post is nothing out of the ordinary for ordinary Hollywood A-Listers who have been on the fence about calling Israel out, but Hadid is no ordinary A-Lister. She’s half Palestinian and has been vocal about the Israeli occupation of Palestine for years.

Her wishy washy post came three days after the Israeli state’s barely-not-a-parody official account on Twitter had called her out for her initial support. Hadid attended a protest in NYC where she and others present chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, something residents of Israel (or at least the government of Israel’s Twitter account) believes to be anti-semitic. The tweet prompted further criticism of her from Israeli supporters.

Though Hadid has since deleted her “neutral” post, the post featuring her at the protest remain up on her Instagram account. “It’s free Palestine till Palestine is free!” she had said.

The sentiments she shared previously are noticeably disconnected with her latest post.

So, what’s really happening here?

Some social media users are speculating it has to do with Dior.

Hadid has been a long-term partner of Dior, appearing in multiple campaigns as the face of the brand and becoming one of its most recognisable brand ambassadors. After her support for Palestine made headlines and social media feeds, pro-Israel comments flooded Dior’s comment sections on Instagram. People began calling for a boycott of the brand for its perceived ‘anti-semitism’.

People believe this is reflective of some of the pressure Hadid might be under. Though a lot of people also rushed to the account to pledge their loyalty to the brand and supporting its choice of model.

We’re not saying her Dior deal is the reason for her neutral post but it’s indicative of the cost of supporting Palestine in the West. As we’re learning on Instagram and Twitter, Israeli supporters are deeply embedded in the world’s business elite and living in Pakistan, we are rather disconnected from what’s at stake for supporting Palestine in the West.

We’re not justifying Hadid’s sudden switch in stance (or maybe not since she deleted her posts), nor do we claim to know what happened. But people are suspicious about why one of Palestine’s most outspoken celebrity advocates suddenly changed her tune.

Others were done with celebrity activism.

This is definitely not the last we’re hearing of the matter. The Hadids are very outspoken about the situation in Palestine and we expect there will be more posts soon.

These Brands Contract With Anti-Israel Supermodels Gigi And Bella Hadid

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The Hadid sisters are two of the most sought-after celebrity brand ambassadors. Now they are more vocal than ever about their pro-Palestinian politics.

Supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid waded into Middle East politics last week amid attacks by the terrorist group Hamas on Israel. The celebrity sisters posted infographics and personal statements on social media expressing their support for Palestine.

“This is about Israeli colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!” Bella wrote in one post.

Gigi and Bella both shared a graphic that reads, “One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & women’s rights, condemn corrupt & abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression.” The statement ironically ignored the fact that LGBT people are treated as criminals in Palestine and that the United Nations reports nearly 40 percent of married Palestinian women are “subject to some kind of violence from their husbands.”

Bella joined a pro-Palestine march in New York on Saturday, along with her Palestinian and millionaire real estate mogul father Mohamed Hadid. She recorded an Instagram live video of herself marching in Brooklyn and chanting Hamas’ antisemitic and genocidal slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a phrase with a history of being used to call for the elimination of Israel.

Where does she say this? pic.twitter.com/c6anl8E3JF — Tammi (@TLaTela) May 16, 2021

“I love my family, I love my Heritage, I love Palestine,” Bella wrote on social media. “I will stand strong to keep their hope for a better land in my heart. A better world for our people and the people around them. They can never erase our history. History is history!”

But a few days later, Bella posted and then deleted what some fans saw as a more “neutral” post about the conflict on her Instagram Story, calling for “coexistence” between the two countries.

Gigi replied to a commenter that she condemns anti-Semitism.

Social media users began to speculate that the models are now facing pressure from prominent fashion brands that they model for and have contracts with as users posted pro-Israel comments on Dior’s Instagram post featuring Bella, saying they would be boycotting the luxury brand.

With Gigi’s 65 million Instagram followers and Bella’s 42 million followers, the sisters are two of the most sought-after celebrity brand ambassadors. Bella has secured more than 14 endorsement deals with designer brands such as Versace, Bulgari, Fendi, and Alexander Wang. If you want to boycott or avoid other brands that hire the Hadid sisters to model and advertise for them, here is a list.

Dior