Bella Hadid attacked for ‘insulting’ Saudi Arabia, the UAE

Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid has come under fire on social media for supposedly disrespecting Saudi Arabia and the UAE in her recent Instagram story. She is pictured with the sole of her boot facing three planes, including a Saudi plane and a UAE plane, an insult in Arab culture.

Many Saudis and Emiratis have taken to social media to express their outrage. Some have called for her to be banned from entering their countries.

https://twitter.com/itsafroditi/status/1140292883695714304

https://twitter.com/realityissofun/status/1140287765948641280

Others tweeted at brands that Hadid has worked with, threatening to boycott the stores of Dior and Versace.

Since Bella Hadid represents Dior I will now stop buying Dior products due to her disrespect to Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

— حياة الحربي 🇸🇦 (@hayat24h) June 16, 2019

https://twitter.com/hager5551/status/1140577538885988354

https://twitter.com/Rahil444444/status/1140574645843824640

READ: Gigi Hadid’s brother releases music video filmed in Palestine

Some focused in on her Palestinian heritage, questioning why she would be so outspoken about Saudi Arabia and the UAE if she wouldn’t do the same for her own country.

https://twitter.com/iThrthr/status/1140584396724088832

Bella Hadid is out there posting a picture of her shoe towards the Emirati and Saudi flags because she read somewhere that they are behind Sudan’s unrest. Just wondering when she’ll be posting a similar picture with Israel’s flag? Or is Palestine less important than Sudan?

— مريم قاسم 🇦🇪 (@Marmar_Q) June 16, 2019

While others highlighted her background as a model, deeming her unqualified to talk about political issues.

https://twitter.com/Deeplyserious/status/1140540991469948928

https://twitter.com/nada_khalf/status/1140294863499517953

Trolls have also been harassing her family members on their social media accounts, spamming their comments with the Saudi and UAE flags.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid)

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByzAFy1hEmw/

On her brother Anwar Hadid’s latest Instagram post social media users commented on Saudi Arabia’s historically close ties to Palestine, saying “Saudi Arabia is the only country that boycotted Israel and has no Saudi embassy. Our greatest kings have been killed and many of our people martyred for Palestine,” while others insulted his sisters and even called for a boycott of the entire Hadid family.

Bella Hadid is known for her outspoken nature about world issues, attending protests demanding Palestinian be given their rights and raising awareness of the plight of the Sudanese people to her nearly 25 million strong following on Instagram.

READ: Sudan will not be silenced