Adidas announced Friday that it will “revise” an advertising campaign for its vintage shoes featuring Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid to commemorate the 1972 Munich Olympics, the historic site of the Israeli genocide.
The German sneaker giant partnered with Hadid to promote its classic SL72 shoe, which was first released at the Munich Olympics, where Palestinian militants took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage and killed a German police officer.
“While completely unintentional, we acknowledge that an association has been made with a tragic historical event and apologize for any upset or distress caused,” an Adidas spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The Israeli government issued a statement to X on Thursday afternoon blasting model Hadid’s involvement in the campaign, saying she has a “history of spreading anti-Semitism and calling for violence against Israelis and Jews.”
“She and her father frequently promote blood libel and anti-Semitic conspiracies against the Jewish people,” the Israeli government said in a post.
The American Jewish Committee also condemned the campaign and questioned how Adidas could ignore the genocide connection.
“Adidas’ choice of a vociferously anti-Israel model to recall these dark Olympics is either a gross oversight or deliberate incitement,” the committee wrote in a post on X. “Neither is acceptable.”
Adidas has not disclosed the extent of the “modifications,” but it appears that Hadid has been removed from the campaign entirely, after she was seen promoting the shoes.
Hadid and her supermodel sister Gigi Hadid have faced criticism for their support of pro-Palestinian efforts since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Hadid She was wearing a keffiyeh dress She will be exhibiting a dress made from fabric from traditional Arab headdresses at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
She also wore a keffiyeh dress Participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in 2021posted on Instagram: “I love my family. I love my traditions. I love Palestine. I will continue to stand strong to hold in my heart their hope for a better land. A better world for our people and those around them. They can never erase our history. History is history!”
In June, it was reported that the model sisters were planning to donate $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts, with some of the money reportedly intended for the embattled United Nations refugee aid agency, which has fired several staff members for suspected ties to Hamas.
In March, the Hadids’ father, Palestinian-born real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, called President Joe Biden a “Zionist criminal” and claimed that he and others would be “hunted down” like the Nazis.
He also sent a flood of racist and homophobic messages to Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post.
Adidas’ removal of the campaign photos infuriated pro-Palestinian advocates on social media, with some calling for a boycott of Adidas products and accusing the company of racism over its alleged firing of a Palestinian model.
“Adidas terminated Bella Hadid’s modeling contract because she’s Palestinian,” one user wrote, garnering 10,000 likes. “#AdidasIsRacist #BoycottAdidas.”
