Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid has said she is willing to lose her modelling career to continue her support for the Palestinian cause.
In a joint interview with Egyptian-American actor Ramy Youssef for GQ magazine, the 25-year-old opened up about her ‘sadness’ for not being able to grow up in ‘Muslim culture’ with her Palestinian father.
She further said that she is half Palestinian, but she did not have the opportunity to explore this aspect of her identity, as she moved to Santa Barbara after her parents’ divorce.
Bella also revealed that she was the only Arab girl in her class in the school, and she was subjected to racial bullying that made her feel sad and lonely.
She also said that for years she was compared to her older sister, Gigi. “I was the ugly brown sister, I wasn’t as cool as her, that’s what people said about me, and unfortunately when you are told things so many times, you believe it,” she added.
She continued, “I suffer from insecurity, anxiety, depression, body image problems, and eating problems, I have severe social anxiety, I also had mental health problems during my childhood, and I developed anorexia in high school.”
Bella previously said on Rep podcast that she has lost many modelling opportunities and friendships because of her advocacy for Palestine.
Bella told GQ about how her career is affected by her support for Palestine, “I realized that I’m not on this earth to be a model”.
Noting that she is happy to be in a position where she can speak out and make people’s voices heard, Hadid said that she is not afraid of losing job offers.
She concluded by saying, “Despite the passage of years, I still feel that all my problems are rooted in the separation of my parents and that I have been ripped from my real environment.”
Bella Hadid, whose full name is Isabella Khair Hadid, is known for her support of the Palestinians on many occasions, as she uses her fame to introduce the Palestinian cause by sharing videos and photos, the last of which is a video clip of the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, who was killed by an Israeli sniper, last May.
Bella Hadid was also among the participants in the protests organized by activists in the British capital, London, against Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2017.
Bella was the subject of an attack by Israel’s official social media account in 2021 after taking part in a rally in New York.
Earlier this year, Bella also spoke out against Israel’s storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque and accused Instagram of shadow banning her stories.
“My Instagram has disabled me from posting on my story — pretty much only when it is Palestine based I assume,” the model, 25, said. “When I post about Palestine I get immediately shadow banned and almost one million less of you see my stories and posts. I wonder what they are trying to hide by censoring me? I wonder what they are hiding when they try to [censor], harass, attack innocent journalists doing their job,” she questioned.
Bella Hadid is the younger daughter of Palestinian American Mohamed Hadid, who is an architect and real estate developer, and Dutch-born model Yolanda Hadid.
Elder sister Gigi is a supermodel and younger brother Anwar is also a model.
