Bella Hadid Accuses Instagram of ‘Bullying’ Her Dad for Being Palestinian
Bella Hadid slammed Instagram for removing a photo of her Palestinian father's passport, insinuating that the platform is anti-Palestine.
The 23-year-old supermodel originally shared a photo of her father Mohamed Hadid's passport with the caption, “I am proud to be Palestinian"—but the social media platform removed Bella's post due to an unspecified violation.
Hadid responded to the violation with a message to Instagram on Tuesday (July 7).
"A message to me from Instagram," she wrote. "Instagram removed my story that only said ‘My baba and his birthplace of Palestine’ with a photograph of his American passport."
"Exactly what part of me being proud of my father's birthplace of Palestine is ‘bullying, harassment, graphic, or sexual nudity’?" she questioned. "Are we not allowed to be Palestinian on Instagram? This, to me, is bullying.”
"You can't erase history by silencing people," she added. "It doesn't work like that."
She followed up her letter to Instagram by re-posting the original photo of her dad's passport, captioning the image, "Do you want him to change his birthplace for you?"
Hadid, who is of Dutch-Palestinian descent, added that she is proud of her heritage and urged her followers to share where their mothers and fathers are from.
"Remind them how proud you are of where you come from," she concluded.
See Hadid's Instagram Story posts, below.