The Palestinian-American father of Gigi and Bella Hadid has apologized for a series of hateful messages he sent to New York Congressman Ritchie Torres.
Mohamed Hadid, 75, offered a tepid retrospective of his attack on Torres, where he began: “I need to apologize. Not because of the anger I feel but because of the words I used to express that anger.’
“I intended to express that Mr. Torres is an accomplice used by Israel,” the real estate developer added, echoing much of the sentiment in the rest of his apology.
His comments followed a report by New York Post detailing how Hadid has spent the last few months attacking Torres online over the congressman’s support for Israel following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Mohamed Hadid, father of models Bella and Gigi (pictured together in 2016), apologized for insulting messages sent to Congressman Ritchie Torres, saying: “I need to apologize. Not for the anger I feel but for the words I used to express that anger.
New York Congressman Ritchie Torres said after receiving the barrage of abuse that ‘Mr. Hadid felt so comfortable demonizing and dehumanizing a black member of Congress that it reveals a tragic truth about our politics.
Hadid offered a tepid retrospective of her messages to Torres, where she followed her apology by calling the representative an “accomplice used by Israel.”
In text messages to Torres, Hadid called him “worse than the rats in the New York sewer system.”
The model’s father also told Torres, who is gay, that he “could get a job as a bouncer at a gay bar” and that he should “dress like the KKK to hide that ugly gray face of yours.”
Given the backlash to the posted messages, Hadid apologized for her language, but took the opportunity to hurl some more insults at Torres.
He said Torres is an ‘accomplice’ of Israel, ‘a state that not only ‘mistreats black and brown people but paints its atrocities pink by using projected gay rights as a shield for its human rights violations.’
“My feeling after 76 years of being a refugee from the country where my ancestors and I were born and watching a genocide unfold is at an all-time high,” he continued.
‘I’m watching American politicians work like AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] messengers of genocide.
‘I used the wrong words to express this anger, but the anger is justified. Sending black, brown, and other marginalized communities to do the dirty work of two countries that have never respected them is wrong.
‘I apologize to my community for directing the conversation to this. And even for a minute away from Palestine. All eyes on Palestine. Free Palestine.’
Hadid made similar criticisms of Torres in her barrage of messages to the representative, which also included: “You are just an unusual colorful black mouth for Israel and AIPAC and you are looking for a $500,000+ payday.”
Torres has openly expressed his support for Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7. He is shown touring a destroyed house at Kibbutz Nir Oz on April 1, 2024 in Nir Oz, Israel.
Nova festival survivor Ofir Amir (L) speaks with U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (R) during a visit to the Nova festival memorial on April 1, 2024 in Re’im, Israel.
Congressman Ritchie Torres speaks at the IAC National Summit at The Diplomat Beach Resort on December 11, 2021 in Hollywood, Florida
Mohamed has previously called President Joe Biden a “Zionist war criminal” who will be “persecuted like the Nazis.”
Torres, who made history when in 2021 he was the first openly gay African-American and openly gay Hispanic member of Congress, said he felt ‘dehumanized’ by Hadid’s messages.
Speaking to the Post, Torres said: “Whether dehumanizing me as if I were worse than the rats in New York’s sewer system or telling me to dress like the KKK to ‘hide that gray face of yours,’ Mr. Hadid has thrown almost every racist insult at me without calling me the N-word.
“That Mr. Hadid felt so comfortable demonizing and dehumanizing a black member of Congress reveals a tragic truth about our politics: If you are a person of color and pro-Israel, you are the target of racist invective.”
Hadid previously came under fire after posting an image on Instagram showing Israel’s flag divided with the Nazi Party flag, comparing them.
The post said the Nazi Party had been “founded on Aryan supremacy,” while Israel was “founded on Jewish supremacy.”
He also compared the Nazis’ “signature method” of “gas chambers” to Israel’s “signature method” of “carpet bombings.”
Mohamed, who was born into a Palestinian family in Nazareth, captioned the post: “And they added and labeled the victims as terrorists, regardless of other activities.”
“Some Palestinians and some Jews even changed their names.”
Last month he called President Joe Biden a “Zionist war criminal” who will be “hunted down like the Nazis.”
The image also compares the Nazi gas chamber method to the bombing of Gaza, and Auschwitz to the Gaza Strip.
LR Bella Hadid, Yolanda Foster, Gigi Hadid and Mohamed Hadid attend the Victoria’s Secret After Party at Grand Palais on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France
Bella was photographed attending a pro-Palestine rally in New York City in May 2021.
In another scathing post against Israel and the United States, he wrote: “This is Biden’s war against the Palestinian people.
‘He will be in court with the rest of the Zionist criminals. We will hunt them down like they did the Nazis.
Hadid had previously intervened to defend her model daughters, who openly express their support for Palestine.
‘My children have always followed their intuition when it comes to human torture and human nature: what happens to humans on Earth. From the disaster in Turkey to the famine in Africa to the homelessness in Southeast Asia, they have been involved in these things, building schools for UNICEF, etc.
“There has always been a humanitarian issue in his blood, nothing to do with being Palestinian,” he said.
Gigi sparked outrage with her Instagram Story labeling Manasra a “child prisoner of war.” In 2013, Manasra, then 12 years old, suffered a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
She was also criticized for sharing a reel about Israelis harvesting Palestinian organs that had been posted online by a TikTok makeup artist from Cardiff, Wales.
The video highlighted a documentary in which Israeli health officials talked about doctors removing organs in the 1990s.
In her apology note, Hadid wrote: “It is important for 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 verify or think deeply about before reposting.
“Unfortunately, I used the wrong example to make that point, and I regret it.” Bella Hadid has also been vocal about her support for Palestine since the conflict broke out.