Adidas pulls Bella Hadid sneaker ads, ‘reviews’ campaign after Israel backlash

Adidas said Friday it was “reviewing” an ad campaign that tapped Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid to promote a vintage shoe honoring the 1972 Munich Olympics — the site of a historic massacre of Israelis.

The German sneaker giant teamed up with Hadid to promote its classic SL72 shoe, which was first released for the Munich Olympics – where a Palestinian militant group took hostage and killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, as well as a police officer German.

“We are aware that associations have been made with tragic historical events – although these are completely unintentional – and apologize for any inconvenience or concern caused,” an Adidas spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

The Israeli government took to X on Thursday afternoon to criticize Hadid’s involvement in the campaign as the model “has a history of spreading anti-Semitism and calls for violence against Israelis and Jews”.

“She and her father often promote blood libels and anti-Semitic conspiracies against Jews,” the Israeli government said in a post.

The American Jewish Committee also denounced the campaign and questioned how Adidas could have overlooked the connection to the massacre.

“For Adidas to choose a vocally anti-Israel model to commemorate this dark Olympics is either massively offensive or deliberately inflammatory,” the committee posted on X. “Neither is acceptable.”

Although Adidas didn’t specify the extent of her “revisions,” it appears Hadid has pulled out of the campaign altogether after the company removed ads that featured Hadid promoting the shoes.

Hadid and her supermodel sister Gigi Hadid have faced criticism for supporting pro-Palestinian efforts since Hamas attacked Israel in October. 7.

Hadid wore a keffiyeh dress – made from traditional Arabic fabric – to the Cannes Film Festival in May.

She also wore a keffiyeh dress when she joined a pro-Palestinian march in 2021, after posting on Instagram: “I love my family, I love my heritage, I love Palestine, I will stand strong to keep their hope for a better land in my country. heart. A better world for our people and the people around them. They can never erase our history. History is history!”

In June, it was reported that the model sisters planned to donate $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts. Some of the money was allegedly earmarked for the UN refugee agency, which fired some of its staff after they were linked to Hamas.

In March, the Hadids’ father, Palestinian-born real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, called President Joe Biden a “Zionist criminal” and claimed he and others would be “persecuted” like the Nazis.

He also sent a barrage of racist and homophobic messages to Rep. Ritchie Torres, according to footage obtained by The Post.

Adidas’ removal of the campaign photos sparked pro-Palestinian protests on social media. Some called for a boycott of Adidas and accused the shoe company of racism for allegedly firing the half-Palestinian model.

“Adidas just canceled Bella Hadid’s modeling contract because she’s Palestinian,” one user wrote, garnering 10,000 likes. “#Adidas is racist, #BoykotoAdidas.”