Israel‘s right-wing national security minister appears to be locked in a social media feud with American supermodel Bella Hadid after she criticized his comments about freedom of movement for Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank.
Citing recent attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in the West Bank, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a televised interview earlier this week that the security and ability of Jewish settlers to travel in and around the West Bank outranks similar considerations for Palestinians, who make up the majority of the territory’s population.
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“My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs,” Ben-Gvir stated, using a biblical name for the area now known as the West Bank. “The right to life comes before freedom of movement.”
Hadid shared a segment of the interview with her nearly 60 million Instagram followers on Thursday and wrote beneath it: “In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another’s. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture, or pure hatred.”
Ben-Gvir responded Friday on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, implying that Hadid does not comprehend the conditions under which Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.
“I invite you to Kiryat Arba, to see how we live here, how every day, Jews who have done nothing wrong to anyone in their lives are murdered here,” he wrote.
Ben-Gvir lives in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement outside Hebron in the southern West Bank. His comments drew strong criticism from both Israelis and Palestinians on social media, and angry protesters gathered outside his residence in Kiryat Arba on Friday to vent their disapproval.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later waded into the fray, defending Ben-Gvir and saying his comments had been misunderstood. The security minister has a history of making highly controversial remarks, and he is viewed by critics as a provocateur for taking part in marches through Palestinian neighborhoods and visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
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Hadid, who rose to fame modeling for brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, and Moschino alongside her older sister Gigi Hadid, has been outspoken on Israeli-Palestinian issues on social media in recent years. Her father, Mohamed Hadid, a prominent real estate developer, was born into a Muslim Palestinian family in Nazareth and fled to Syria after the 1947-1949 war that led up to and followed the foundation of the State of Israel. Both of his daughters have found success in modeling and on social media, and the family is closely associated with the Kardashians and other West Coast celebrity influencers.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have surged over the past year as Palestinian militant groups launch attacks on Israeli civilians and the Israeli military carries out operations aimed at stamping out groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
