Supermodel Bella Hadid Criticized Israel’s Far-Right Security Minister Ben-Gvir. Now He’s Lashing Out At Her

TEL AVIV, Israel – On Friday, Israel’s far-right national security minister Ben-Gvir slammed supermodel Bella Hadid for criticizing his recent vehement public remarks about Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 earlier this week, following two deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the occupied territories, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued that his right to free movement as a Jewish settler surpasses Palestinians’ right to the same right.

“My right, and the rights of my wife and children, to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for Arabs,” Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday, referring to the biblical term for the West Bank. “The right to life comes before freedom of movement.”

Ben-Gvir then apologized to Mohammad Magadli, a well-known Israeli-Arab television host in the studio. But that’s the truth.”

On Thursday, Hadid, a supermodel and social media influencer with a Palestinian father, posted a portion of Ben-Gvir’s interview with her 59.5 million Instagram followers, adding, “In no place, no time, especially in 2023, should one life be more valuable than another’s.” “Especially because of their ethnicity, culture, or outright hatred.”

She also shared a video from the leading Israeli rights organization B’Tselem, in which Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of Hebron tell a resident that Palestinians are not allowed to go on a certain street because it is exclusively for Jews. “Does this remind anyone else of anything?” she wondered.

Ben-Gvir reacted angrily to Hadid’s post on Friday.

“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 posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Ben-Gvir lives in the Kiryat Arba colony near Hebron, the largest Palestinian city.

Supermodel Bella Hadid Criticized Israel’s Far-Right Security Minister Ben-Gvir.

His television statement drew widespread criticism, with analysts citing it as proof that Israel is transforming into an apartheid government that aspires to retain Jewish rule from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Protesters gathered outside Ben-Gvir’s home in a West Bank village on Friday to denounce his comments. As critics shared recordings of Israeli aggression against Palestinians, the term “Sorry, Mohammad” became social media fodder.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported Ben-Gvir’s remarks, claiming that Israel “allows maximum freedom of movement” in the West Bank.

According to Netanyahu, Palestinian militants “use this freedom of movement to murder Israeli women, children, and families by ambushing them at various points along different routes.”

“This is what Minister Ben-Gvir meant when he said, ‘the right to life comes before the right to move,'” Netanyahu added.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which constantly monitors movement and access in the West Bank and Gaza, at least 645 checkpoints and roadblocks are preventing Palestinian movement throughout the West Bank.

According to the agency, more than half of the restrictions make it difficult for Palestinians to go about their daily lives.

Palestinian militants opened fire on an Israeli automobile in Hebron earlier this week, killing an Israeli woman and critically injuring the driver. That attack came just days after a Palestinian shooting in the northern Palestinian town of Hawara killed an Israeli parent and kid.

Supermodel Bella Hadid Criticized Israel’s Far-Right Security Minister Ben-Gvir.

According to The Associated Press, Palestinian attacks on Israelis have killed 30 people since the beginning of the year. During that time, Israel claimed to have murdered around 180 Palestinians in the West Bank, most of whom were militants.

Ben-Gvir acknowledged the response to his words but reiterated his original statement.

“So, yes, the right of myself and my fellow Jews to travel and return home safely on Judean and Samarian roads outweighs the right of terrorists who throw stones at us and kill us,” he wrote.

Ben-Gvir has already been convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization. He was a fan of rabbi Meir Kahane, who was barred from Parliament and whose Kach organization was designated a terrorist organization by the US before his assassination in New York in 1990. Kach aimed to deprive Arab Israelis of citizenship, segregate Israeli public spaces, and prohibit Jewish-non-Jewish marriages.

Before entering politics, Ben-Gvir exhibited a portrait of a Jewish man who fatally murdered 29 Palestinians in the West Bank in 1994 in his living room.

Ben-Gvir, a once-marginal far-right activist, now has tremendous clout in Netanyahu’s government as the national security minister in charge of the Israeli police force.

SOURCE – (AP)