Pathbreakers of Arab America—Fourth in Series: Gigi and Bella Hadid
By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer
This is the fourth in Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, science, academia, and politics, among other areas. We will endeavor to represent the broad array of Arab Americans, including a mix of women and men, countries of origin, and fields of work. Our fourth pathbreaker case includes sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid, Arab Americans, world-famous fashion models, and activists, who are deeply committed to their Palestinian roots.
Gigi and Bella Hadid, Arab Americans of Palestinian descent, fashion models extraordinaire
The oldest of these two well-known sisters, Jelena Noura “Gigi” Hadid, was born on April 23, 1995 in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Mohamed, an Arab American, Jordanian of Palestinian descent from Nazareth, is a real-estate developer. Gigi’s mother is Dutch, former model Yolanda Van den Herik Hadid. Through her father, she claims descent from Daher Al Omer, Prince of Nazareth and Sheik of Galilee. Gigi’s younger sister, Bella, and a younger brother, Anwar, are also well-known models.
Gigi Hadid attended university at the New School in New York City, where she studied criminal psychology. As her modeling career developed at full speed, she dropped out of her studies. Gigi’s career began at a very early age, two years old according to some sources, at which point she was discovered by ‘Guess’ co-founder Paul Marciano. She became the face of a 2012 Guess campaign.
By 2013, Hadid had signed with a major Modeling agency, and in February 2014 she made her New York Fashion Week debut. She was featured on the covers of high fashion magazines and starred with known actors in fashion design campaigns. In January 2015, she was named the Daily Front Row’s Model of the Year and a Maybelline brand ambassador. On November 20, 2016, Gigi hosted the American Music Awards alongside Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah.
Gigi landed on several Vogue covers, as well as other prestigious magazine covers, including, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and American Harper’s Bazaar. By 2018, she joined multiple high fashion campaigns, including Valentino, Moschino, Versace, and Fendi. Gigi then released her second collaboration with both Vogue Eyewear and Messika Jewelry. In the same year, during fashion week, she presented the fourth and last season of her capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger in Milan. By August 2022, Hadid revealed that she would be launching her first solo clothing line, Guest in Residence.
Isabella Khairiah (Bella) Hadid, Gigi’s younger sister, was born on October 9, 1996. Her modeling career closely parallels her older sister’s as a star American model. Their common fashion interests parallel their personal commitments to charitable causes and pro-Arab and Palestinian initiatives.
Gigi and Bella’s activist support of Arab and Palestinian causes
Both sisters are philanthropic, donating to many charities around the world involving children (through Unicef), food (Feeding America in support of Covid relief), Black Lives Matter, NAACP, ACLU, and Ukrainian victims of the Russian invasion. In listing the sisters’ many donations to different causes, Vogue Magazine omitted their gifts to Palestinians disadvantaged by Israel’s occupation. The magazine was criticized for this omission.
The Hadid sisters have actively supported pro-Muslim and pro-Palestinian initiatives. One obvious example of Gigi and Bella’s participation was in protests in New York in January 2017 against former President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban. Executive Order 13780 banned citizens of predominantly Muslim countries from immigrating to or even just visiting the U.S.
As part of her participation in the New York January protest, titled “No Ban, No Wall,” Bella openly aired her opposition to Trump’s immigration policies. In an interview with Porter, she averred that she is “proud to be a Muslim,” while reflecting on her father’s history as a Palestinian refugee.
She claimed that it was her own family history that drove her to participate in the march: “I come from a really diverse background. I’ve had incredible experiences all over the world… and I’ve learned that we’re all just people, and we all deserve respect and kindness. We shouldn’t treat people as if they don’t deserve kindness just because of their ethnicity. It’s just not right.” On December 8, Hadid joined protests in London against Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“Bella Hadid Isn’t Afraid to Speak About Palestine Anymore”
It’s to Bella that we turn for her as well as Gigi’s feelings and expressions about Palestine. Bella has become especially more vocal in the past few years about her support for Palestine. That is where her father, Mohamed Hadid, was born. Bella’s advocacy caused her to become the object of a full-page attack ad in the New York Times accusing her of antisemitism. Bella spoke of these attacks in an interview about a year ago with The Cut and with Noor Tagouri on his podcast, the Rep.
Somewhat gingerly, Bella stated, “I have this overwhelming anxiety of not saying the right thing and not being what everybody needs me to be at all times.” She was referring to her long-term advocacy for Palestine. In an Instagram post, she reaffirmed her commitment to fighting for Palestine, writing, “I will never allow anyone to forget about our beautiful Palestine or our beautiful people.” Putting her money where her mouth is, she and Gigi announced that they would be donating their Fashion Week earnings to organizations providing aid to Ukraine and Palestine.
Bella has noted that her activism has not come without cost. “I had so many companies that stopped working with me and I have friends that completely dropped me.” In response to her attendance at a pro-Palestinian march following an air strike in Gaza In May of 2021, she was accused of being an “advocate for throwing Jews into the sea” by the official Israel Twitter account. Bella responded by calling out Israel on its “colonization and military occupation and apartheid.”
Hadid suggested in an interview that she “realized at a young age that people wouldn’t necessarily embrace her identity as a proud Palestinian woman. She remembered being called a “terrorist” in the eighth grade. “I was being called names and being immediately blasted as a person of hatred for other people, but all I was talking about was freeing my father’s people — people who are deeply hurting.”
Gigi and Bella Hadid, besides their place in society as super fashion models, are deeply committed to who they are as Arab Americans, especially willing to speak their minds on their Palestinian identity. In so doing, they contribute significantly to American understandings of multiculturalism generally and especially to knowing more about the plight of their fellow Palestinians.
Sources:
–“List of Arab Americans, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid,” Wikipedia, 2023
–“Bella Hadid Isn’t Afraid to Speak About Palestine Anymore,” The Cut, 8/15/2022
John Mason, PhD., who focuses on Arab culture, society, and history, is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017. He has taught at the University of Libya, Benghazi, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo; John served with the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID and the World Bank in 65 countries.
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