The Adidas shoe company is apologizing for ads in which it used the rabidly anti-Israel model Bella Hadid in a campaign for a shoe referencing the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes.
FILE – File Photo from Sept. 5, 1972 shows a member of the Arab Commando group which seized members of the Israeli Olympic Team at their quarters at the Munich Olympic Village appearing with a hood over his face on the balcony of the village building where the commandos held several members of the Israeli team hostage. (AP Photo/Kurt Strumpf, File)
The shocking collage of offensive symbols was aptly summarized by TMZ:
Adidas made Bella the face of its marketing plan for a retro sneaker referencing the 1972 Munich Olympics … the Games where Palestinian terrorists infamously murdered 11 members of Israel’s Olympic team after taking them hostage.
The issue … Bella’s a Palestinian-American model who has been a vocal critic of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
The New York Post added:
Hadid, who is half-Palestinian on her father’s side, and her sister Gigi have faced criticism for being supporters of the Palestinian relief efforts since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The German athletic wear company announced Monday the re-launch of the classic SL 72 shoe ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
It also marks the 52nd anniversary of the “Munich Massacre,” when members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September stormed the Olympic village and took the Israeli athletes and coaches hostage before they were eventually killed.
The State of Israel responded via its official account on X / Twitter:
The American Jewish Committee criticized Adidas in a statement that noted that Palestinian terrorists had killed 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer:
At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, 12 [sic] Israelis were murdered and taken hostage by Palestinian terrorist group Black September.
For Adidas to pick a vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory. Neither is acceptable.
We call on Adidas to address this egregious error.
Adidas apologized, according to a statement quoted by TMZ: “We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events – though these are completely unintentional – and we apologize for any upset or distress caused. As a result we are revising the remainder of the campaign.”
Bella Hadid has been accused of spreading fake news in her efforts to demonize Israel, including a photo she shared on social media that purported to be of starving Palestinian children but which was, in realty, taken in Syria.
The summer Olympics are set to begin next week in Paris — and are already striking an anti-Israel tone in a country known for its growing antisemitism. The Olympic torch will be carried by Christina Assi, a photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Lebanon who lost a leg in mid-October when Israel apparently fired a tank shell after coming under attack from Iran-backed Hezbollah. The AFP claims, without evidence, that the journalists were “targeted.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.