Adidas has removed Bella Hadid from a retro shoe advertising campaign linked to the 1972 Munich Olympics. The company dropped the supermodel, who is half-Palestinian, after facing criticism from Israel. Hadid has been an active supporter of Palestine and her support has drawn ire from Israel, which accused her of hostility. Israel highlighted the killing of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian attackers at the Munich Games.
In response to the criticism, Adidas apologized and announced it would revise the campaign. The German sportswear company selected Hadid to promote its SL72 trainers, originally launched during the 1972 Olympics. The official X (formerly Twitter) handle of Israel posted, “Adidas recently launched a new campaign for their shoes to highlight the 1972 Munich Olympics. Eleven Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the Munich Olympics.”
The post continued, “Guess who the face of their campaign is? Bella Hadid, a half-Palestinian model who has a history of spreading antisemitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews. She and her father frequently promote blood libels and antisemitic conspiracies against Jews. Adidas, any comment?”
“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events – though these are completely unintentional – and we apologise for any upset or distress caused,” Adidas told AFP while confirming that Bella Hadid had indeed been removed from the campaign.
Netizens reacted to Israel’s post, however, many reactions came in support of the supermodel. “The world stands with Palestine,” wrote one user while another posted, “I hate to break it to you but it’s okay to be Palestinian.” “Opposing genocide does not make you antisemitic,,,, It makes you human. Free Palestine. Thank you, Adidas,” posted another before the German company dropped Hadid from the campaign. “Her family literally had their home stolen from Israelis in 1948, after opening up their home to refugees. You really have some audacity harassing them after the family survived as refugees, and a generation later made something of themselves,” wrote another.
