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Adidas Accused of ‘Embracing Jew-Hatred’ for Featuring Anti-Israel Model Bella Hadid in New Campaign Tied to Munich Massacre
The German sportswear company Adidas is facing backlash for choosing Bella Hadid to model its new take on sneakers used by athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where 11 Israeli participants were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.
Adidas announced on Monday the release of its iconic SL 72 sneaker, first released in 1972, in five new colorways ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The campaign featured “titans from the world of sport and culture,” including Hadid, soccer player Jules Koundé, rapper A$AP Nast, musician Melissa Bon, and model Sabrina Lan. The running sneaker was originally designed for runners in the Munich Olympics, where 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Palestinian group Black September.
Hadid has a history of criticizing Israel and accusing the Jewish state of colonization, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and apartheid over the Palestinian people. She has claimed Israel perpetrates a “government system suppressing people,” posted on social media about alleged “Palestinian oppression” under Israel, and in 2021 participated in a pro-Palestinian rally where she chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Hadid has also falsely accused Israel of being a “Jewish supremacist” state and claimed “Jesus was Palestinian.”
Adidas was founded by brothers and Nazi party members Adolf and Rudolf Dassler in Germany in 1924.
Ynet, which accused Adidas of displaying “insensitivity” in its collaboration with Hadid, reported that the campaign will not appear in Israel. The campaign has already been criticized by the state of Israel’s official account on X/Twitter and also the watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) demanded that Adidas apologize and drop Hadid from the campaign, calling her inclusion “an affront” to the memory of the Israelis murdered at the 1972 Olympic Games.
“For Adidas to choose Hadid, someone who is constantly baiting Jews and attacking the Jewish State, is bad enough, but to have her launch a shoe commemorating an Olympics when so much Jewish blood was shed is just sick,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa said in a statement. “We call on Adidas to apologize for this decision and drop Hadid immediately. Otherwise, it will be seen as a direct attack on the memory of the 11 Israelis who were murdered while merely trying to participate in the Olympic Games.”
He noted that the Israeli delegation heading to Paris for this year’s Olympic Games has already been threatened with violence, adding, “Thoughtless actions like this only embolden Israel haters and antisemites.”
Social media users also attacked the German brand for hiring Hadid to be the face of a campaign tied to the deadly Munich Olympics where Israelis were murdered, describing the decision as “simply unbelievable, hypocritical, and disgusting.” One user on X/Twitter, wrote: “Adidas just ruined their name and reputation with one disgusting decision.”
Adar Rubin, from the grassroots movement #EndJewHatred, said, “By partnering with Bella Hadid, a blatant Hamas defender, Adidas has officially shown that they learned nothing from the Kanye West fallout by once again embracing Jew-hatred.”
Rubin was referring to the creative partnership Adidas had with West, who made a series of antisemitic comments in 2022. The brand terminated its eight-year working relationship with the rapper and withdrew his Yeezy line of products because of his remarks. Adidas later began selling its remaining Yeezy inventory and promised to donate a “significant amount” of proceeds to groups that combat hate speech. However, Adidas Chief Executive Bjørn Gulde seemingly defended West last year, saying the rapper “didn’t mean what he said” and that he was not “a bad person – it just came across that way.”
Following widespread backlash, Gulden apologized for suggesting that West, who now legally goes by the name Ye, did not mean the antisemitic comments he made.
The post Adidas Accused of ‘Embracing Jew-Hatred’ for Featuring Anti-Israel Model Bella Hadid in New Campaign Tied to Munich Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City
(JTA) — An Israeli man was indicted on Thursday in connection to the violent assault of a Catholic nun in Jerusalem last month, after prosecutors said he targeted her over her Christian identity.
Yona Schreiber, 36, from the West Bank settlement of Peduel, was arrested last week and has since been indicted on charges of “assault causing actual injury motivated by hostility toward the public on the grounds of religion, as well as simple assault,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Schreiber, who is Jewish, attacked the nun just outside of the Old City in Jerusalem because he identified her as a Catholic nun. Schreiber allegedly pushed and then kicked the nun as she was lying on the ground and also attacked a passerby who attempted to intervene.
תקיפת הנזירה אתמול באזור קבר דוד בירושלים – שוטרי מרחב דוד איתרו את החשוד (36) ועצרו אותו בחשד לתקיפה ממניע גזעני >>> pic.twitter.com/agRpznR84X
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 30, 2026
The nun, a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archeological Research, suffered bruises on her face and leg due to the attack, the state attorney’s office said.
The attack, which drew condemnation from Catholic leaders as well as faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, comes amid mounting concern over hostility toward Christian clergy and holy sites in Israel.
Cases of Jews harassing Christians have risen sharply in recent years. Last month, the IDF punished a soldier who was filmed bludgeoning a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon. This week, the IDF also announced that it would discipline a different soldier who was seen placing a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a photo posted on social media.
Israel’s attorney general asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where the indictment was filed, to hold Schreiber in detention for the duration of the legal proceeding.
The assault carries a maximum prison sentence of three years, which could increase to six years if prosecutors prove the attack was motivated by religious bias.
The post Israeli man indicted in attack on Catholic nun in Jerusalem’s Old City appeared first on The Forward.
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Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’
(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish real estate mogul Steven Roth compared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” rhetoric this week to racial slurs and pro-Palestinian rhetoric on an earnings call for his company, Vornado Realty Trust.
“I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase, ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said, referring to the phrase commonly used at pro-Palestinian protests that many Jewish groups consider antisemitic.
The remark by Roth, who has long been a notable philanthropist to Jewish causes, adds to mounting tensions between New York business leaders and Mamdani over his recently announced “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5 million.
During the call Tuesday, Roth also expressed support for Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, whose $238 million dollar penthouse was featured in a video by Mamdani announcing plans for the tax last month.
“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “The ugly, unnecessary video stunt is personal for Ken and sort of personal for me.”
Roth’s comments touched on a longstanding source of friction between Mamdani and some New York Jewish leaders, who have criticized the mayor over his views on Israel and his previous defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” another common pro-Palestinian slogan viewed by some as a call to violence against Jews.
In the wake of Mamdani’s election, some Jewish business leaders, including Dave Portnoy, the Jewish founder of Barstool Sports, said that they planned to leave the city altogether, citing the mayor’s fiscal policies and concerns about antisemitism under his leadership.
In a statement responding to Roth’s comments, Mamdani’s office said that he wanted all New Yorkers to succeed, including “business owners and entrepreneurs who create good-paying jobs and make this city the economic engine of America.”
“That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth while working people are pushed to the brink,” the statement continued. “The status quo is unsustainable and unjust. If we want this city to become a place that working people can afford, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers contributing their fair share.”
The post Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison
(JTA) — The man charged with carrying out a deadly firebombing attack on a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last year was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday after pleading guilty to muder and dozens of other charges.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who was arrested at the scene of the attack on the demonstrators last June, pleaded guilty to 101 charges, including 52 counts of attempted murder and one count of murder for the death of Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old victim of the attack who later died of her wounds.
During the June attack, Soliman shouted “free Palestine” and threw two molotov cocktails at the group, Run for Their Lives, injuring over a dozen people. According to an earlier court filing, Soliman said that he had staged the attack, which prosecutors said he planned for a year, because he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.”
Soliman has separately pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, for which prosecutors could potentially seek the death penalty.
“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman said during the sentencing hearing, adding that he wanted federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.”
During his remarks, Soliman argued that he had not been driven by anti-Jewish animus. He later said that Zionism was “the enemy” and that it was his “right” to be against Israel.
Chief District Judge Nancy W. Salomone rejected Mr. Soliman’s arguments, telling him that his “choices were acts of terror, and they victimized an entire community,” according to the New York Times.
“You chose to victimize these people because they were members of the Jewish community,” she said.
In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons, Andrew and Ethan Diamond, asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again,” according to the Associated Press.
They said that Diamond had suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death, adding that “in those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions ‘living hell’ and ‘fate worse than death.’”
The post Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison appeared first on The Forward.