adidas apologises for its recent campaign with Bella Hadid: what happened?

adidas released the new campaign for the SL 72 OG trainers initially designed by the sportswear brand for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The face of the campaign is Bella Hadid, a Palestinian-American model, who has openly taken a stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She and her family have received death threats because of her stand for the liberation and salvation of the Palestinian people under Israeli blockade.

Jewish and pro-Israeli Twitter – Jwitter, as it is commonly known – was ablaze with this campaign. During the 1972 Olympics, eight members of the Palestinian militant organisation Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage. Those nine were later killed. It has since become known as the Munich massacre.

adidas has since apologised, telling The Washington Times: ‘We are aware that connections have been made to tragic historical events – albeit entirely unintentional – and we apologise for any upset or distress caused. We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue to strive to uphold diversity and equality in all that we do’.

The model has said in the past ‘I can’t keep quiet any longer. Fear is not an option. The people and children of Palestine, especially in Gaza, cannot afford our silence. We are not brave, they are. My heart bleeds with pain from the trauma I am seeing, as well as from the generational trauma of my Palestinian blood. Seeing the aftermath of the airstrikes in Gaza, I cry with all the mothers who have lost their children and with the children who cry alone, with all the lost fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and friends who will never set foot on this land again’.

The model also condemned the attacks by Hamas, and offered a glimpse of her mourning to Israeli families. ‘I condemn terrorist attacks against any civilian, anywhere […] I believe in my heart of hearts that no child, no person anywhere, should be separated from their family either temporarily or indefinitely. This goes for Israelis as well as Palestinians. We must continue to press our leaders not to forget the urgent needs of the people of Gaza and to ensure that innocent Palestinian civilians are not the forgotten victims of this war’.

Bella Hadid breaks her silence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with her emotional manifesto.