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Israel-Palestine conflict: Bella Hadid cries for dead as she joins protests in New York

‘You cannot allow yourself to be desensitised to watching human life being taken,’ said supermodel

Ellie Harrison
Tuesday 18 May 2021 11:29 BST
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Bella Hadid joins pro-Palestine protesters in New York

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Bella Hadid joined protests in New York this weekend in support of Palestine, and posted a photograph of herself crying about the conflict on Instagram.

The supermodel, whose father Mohamed Hadid is Palestinian, attended the demonstrations in Bay Ridge on Saturday (15 May) to campaign against the violence, which has left 181 in Gaza dead, including 52 children. In Israel, 10 people including two children have been killed.

In photos and footage posted on her social media, Hadid, 24, was seen marching alongside friends while waving a large Palestinian flag.

She wrote in an Instagram post: “The way my heart feels.. To be around this many beautiful, smart, respectful, loving, kind and generous Palestinians all in one place… it feels whole ! We are a rare breed!!

“It’s free Palestine til Palestine is free!!! P.s. The Palestinian drip is real.”

Not long before attending the protests, Bella shared a photo on her Stories, showing tears streaming down her face, with the caption: “I feel a deep sense of pain for Palestine and for my Palestinian brothers and sisters today and everyday. watching these videos physically breaks my heart into 100 different pieces.

“You cannot allow yourself to be desensitised to watching human life being taken. You just can’t. Palestinian lives are the lives that will help change the world. And they are being taken from us by the second. #FreePalestine.”

Gal Gadot and Rihanna are also among the stars who have also shared their views on the escalating Israel-Palestine conflict.

The cross- border fighting is the crescendo to weeks of tensions that have simmered chiefly in the contested city of Jerusalem, that was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and effectively annexed later.

Violence between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces have centred around the Old City home to Temple Mount or Haram Ash-Sharif, the heart of the decades’ long conflict.

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It reached breaking point after a controversial decision by Israel to evict four Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem in place of Israeli settlers.

The UN has said this order may amount to war crimes, and protests by Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel rolled out across the country, East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

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