Kylie Jenner deletes pro-Israel post while pro-Palestine Bella Hadid remains silent: Stars struggle to react to war

As harrowing reports continue to pour out about Hamas militants massacring Israeli civilians, kidnapping mothers and their young children and parading a young woman’s body through the streets of Gaza, Kylie Jenner may regret giving into backlash and deleting her pro-Israel Instagram post Sunday, while her supermodel friend, Bella Hadid, and other celebrities are being trolled for their prior support for Palestine.

Indeed, the brutal attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas Saturday, sparking the Israel-Gaza War, has created a dilemma for celebrities like Hadid, who have long used their star power to lend support to Palestinian rights and to denounce the Israeli government for what international human rights organizations have said is its improper use of military occupation and community settlements to control the Palestinian territories.

But Hamas’ killing of more than 200 concert-goers and threats to execute hostages amid Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, have changed the public relations calculus in this decades-long conflict. A number of A-list celebrities have had no problem proclaiming their support for Israel, including Gal Gadot and Natalie Portman, actors born in Israel, as well as Madonna, Mark Hamill, Amy Schumer and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The official X account for the State of Israel has reposted some of these celebrity statements, including that of Barbra Streisand who compared the Hamas attack to what the United States suffered on 9/11. After Kylie Jenner deleted her post in less than an hour, her mom Kris Jenner, joined those in denouncing Hamas, which she called a terrorist organization, though she also tried to thread a certain needle.

“It’s reasonable and logical to be opposed to the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians while calling for the protection of Jews in Israel,” Kris Jenner said on Instagram Story. “The images of kidnapped Israelis are shocking and devastating.”

Most celebrities have shied away from trying to defend the Palestinian side at this time, TMZ reported. That includes Emma Watson, who is among a group of stars who previously promoted their support for Palestine through such groups as the Artists for Palestine U.K.

The “Harry Potter” star appears to have remained silent, as have others. Two notable exceptions are Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo, who have never shied away from political controversy. Sarandon has reposted some links about Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the “prison”-like conditions in the territory, while Ruffalo tried to take a measured stance, which was met with mixed reactions.

Ruffalo wrote on X that he is “grief-stricken for the unspeakable suffering and loss of life and loved ones.” He continued, “I have no answers obviously, but I feel it is absolutely necessary to focus on our shared human existence and reality.”

Meanwhile, Hadid, the Palestinian-Dutch model and influencer, did not share any messages on the war with her nearly 60 million Instagram followers, leading people to flood her account with taunts about her silence or accusations that her prior support for Palestine leaves “blood” on her hands.

It’s likely that Kylie Jenner’s pro-Israel post brought added attention to Hadid. After Jenner shared a graphic from StandWithUs, California-based nonprofit organization that supports Israel, she was met with furious backlash, including a flood of Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian messages. Some observed that Jenner probably isn’t the kind of celebrity who should weigh in on a volatile international crisis, given that she mostly seems to care about promoting her image as a glamorous influencer.

Others speculated that Jenner quickly retracted her post because she didn’t want to upset her friend Hadid, whose has become one of the better known celebrity supporters of Palestinian rights. But for that support, Hadid is now facing litany of angry comments on older Instagram posts, including accusations that she has “innocent people’s blood” on her hands.

“Laughable. A privileged model who suddenly has nothing to say?” someone wrote on the Instagram post Hadid shared in April, when she was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2023. Back then, Hadid wrote that she would would always “be a supporter for the oppressed and anyone less fortunate, no matter whose feathers it ruffles.”

Support for Palestine, the country where her father, Mohamed Hadid, was born, has clearly been dear to Hadid’s heart, The Cut reported. While Hadid said in an interview that she initially was hesitant to speak out on such a complicated political issue, she also said she realized she had done her “education enough” and knows her family and history “enough” to feel confident in her opinion, The Cut reported.

In a June 2022 Instagram post, Hadid reaffirmed her commitment to fight for Palestine, writing, “I will never allow anyone to forget about our beautiful Palestine, or our beautiful people,” The Cut reported. As recently as August, she incited the ire of Israel’s far-right national security minister when she criticized some of his incendiary televised remarks about Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the Associated Press reported.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued that his right to freedom of movement as a Jewish settler outweighed the same right for Palestinians, the AP said. “My right, the right of my wife and my children, to move around Judea and Samaria is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs,” Ben-Gvir said, using the biblical name for the West Bank, AP reported.

Hadid shared an excerpt from Ben-Gvir’s interview with her social media followers, writing: “In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another’s. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture or pure hatred.” She also posted a video from B’Tselem, a leading Israeli rights group, showing Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron telling a resident that Palestinians are not permitted to walk on a certain street because it is reserved for Jews, AP reported. “Does this remind anyone of anything?” she wrote.

Ben-Gvir lashed out against Hadid’s post, AP reported.

“I invite you to Kiryat Arba, to see how we live here, how every day, Jews who have done nothing wrong to anyone in their lives are murdered here,” Ben-Gvir wrote on X.

This tense exchange between Hadid and Ben-Gvir came days after a Palestinian gunman opened fire on an Israeli car near the West Bank Palestinian city of Hebron, killing an Israeli woman and seriously wounding the driver, AP reported. That attack also came days after a Palestinian shooting attack killed an Israeli father and son in the northern Palestinian town of Hawara.