Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli accused Bella Hadid of spreading fake news with a post that featured Palestinian children.
Hadid, 27, shared an image of the children with her 60 million followers on Monday along with the caption: “Gaza on my mind,” a reference to the continuing situation in the Palestinian territory currently under attack by Israel.
However, the clip originally comes from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria and comes from a 2021 documentary directed by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war.
After social media users began pointing out that the image was from Syria, Instagram added a note saying that the post was missing important context and could mislead people. The note links to a website that explains that the images come from a refugee camp in Syria and show the victims of the Assad regime, not Israel.
Today, Refaeli took to her own Instagram to criticize Hadid. She shared a screenshot of her fellow model’s post with a red “fake news” stamp at the top.
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli accused Bella Hadid of spreading fake news with a post that featured Palestinian children.
Bella Hadid (pictured), 27, shared an image of the children with her 60 million followers on Monday along with the caption: “Gaza on my mind.” However, the clip was originally from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria and comes from a 2021 documentary directed by Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian civil war.
Today, Refaeli took to her own Instagram to criticize Hadid. She shared a screenshot of her fellow model’s post with a red “fake news” stamp at the top.
Instagram added a note below Hadid’s post saying it was missing important context and could mislead people (pictured)
The misleading post remains on Hadid’s Instagram days after it was posted and has received more than a million likes.
‘Didn’t you learn from your sister’s mistake?’ she wrote, likely in reference to the mistake made by Bella’s older sister, Gigi Hadid, in claiming that Israel is “the only country in the world that holds children as prisoners of war.”
Gigi’s post accused Israel of “kidnapping, raping, humiliating, torturing and murdering Palestinians,” but the model, whose father is Palestinian and who last year compared Israelis to Nazis, apologized for her “mistake.” , which he said was an oversight.
“Taking innocent people hostage is never okay,” Hadid wrote at the time, adding, “Harming someone because they are Jewish is never okay.”
At that time, Refaeli attacked Gigi following her publication. He shared other posts criticizing Gigi and also shared a video of an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson talking about the country’s Iron Dome defense system and the ongoing conflict with Hamas, which was sparked by the terrorist attack on September 7. October.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack that left around 1,200 dead. Hamas militants also took about 250 people hostage and Israel estimates that 129 remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.
“I think there is a lot to be angry about, but I think the world’s anger should be directed at Hamas (for its attack on Israel),” the spokesperson said in the video shared by Refaeli at the time.
‘Because Israel did not start this war. We didn’t want this war.’
“Our war is against Hamas,” the spokesman continued, adding: “It is not against the Palestinians.” The video ends with the spokesperson urging the world to investigate and “be on the right side of history.”
“I think he’s talking to you,” Refaeli wrote alongside the video, tagging Gigi.
Both Gigi Hadid and Bar Refaeli are also rumored to have had relationships with Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio in the past.
As of Thursday afternoon, Bella’s post from Monday remains online.
Instagram’s fact-check note links to a web page that explains that the images come from a refugee camp in Syria and show victims of the Assad regime, not Israel.
It says: ‘This post is misleading. This video was not filmed in Palestine. The video dates back to 2013 and was recorded in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.
The images are part of a film called Little Palestine, Siege Diary, which shows the aftermath of Assad’s siege on Yarmouk, what was then the world’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, home to tens of thousands of people.
This is not the first time the Los Angeles native has shared images from Syria that lack context.
In November, the millionaire posted the same images of children in Syria sharing their hopes and dreams amid the war and claimed they were taken in Gaza during the ongoing conflict with Israel.
At the time, he wrote: “Thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women and CHILDREN imprisoned without trial.”
Syrian Americans were quick to denounce the model for misleading posts about the war.
“This is not the first time he has done this with these SAME IMAGES of Yarmouk children,” wrote Kareem Rifai, media strategist at the American Enterprise Institute.
Bella was photographed attending a pro-Palestine rally in New York City in May 2021.
In November, the millionaire posted the same images of children in Syria sharing their hopes and dreams amid the war and claimed they were taken in Gaza.
Hadid’s older sister, Gigi, apologized last November after claiming that Israel “is the only country in the world” that holds children as prisoners of war.
‘Completely unacceptable and irresponsible for a mega-celebrity with a massive reach. Assad continues to kill Syrians every day.”
Just two days ago, Hadid’s father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, was forced to apologize for a series of hateful messages he sent to US Congressman Ritchie Torres.
A New York Post report detailed how Hadid has spent the past few months attacking Torres online over the congressman’s support for Israel following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
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.
Just two days ago, Hadid’s father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, was forced to apologize for a series of hateful messages he sent to New York Congressman Ritchie Torres.
Mohamed has also compared the Nazi gas chamber method to the bombing of Gaza, and Auschwitz to the Gaza Strip.
Bella and Gigi Hadid join the protest against President Trump’s immigration ban on the streets of New York in January 2017.
‘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.’
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.
Mohamed has also compared the Nazi gas chamber method to the bombing of Gaza, and Auschwitz to the Gaza Strip.