![Bella Hadid Takes to Street to Join Protesters in Support of Palestine](/display/images/photo/2021/05/17/00170915.jpg)
The catwalk beauty has joined thousands of protesters in a rally to support her father's native country amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine.
- May 17, 2021
AceShowbiz - Supermodel Bella Hadid joined thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Brooklyn, New York on Saturday (15May21) for a rally in support of Palestine.
The catwalk favourite, whose father Mohamed Hadid is from Palestine, wore a traditional Keffiyeh dress and a face mask as she waved a large Palestinian flag during the demonstration.
"The way my heart feels... To be around this many beautiful, smart, respectful, loving , kind and generous Palestinians all in one place... it feels whole!" she wrote on social media. "We are a rare breed...!!"
"I have a lot to say about this but for now, please read and educate yourself. This is not about religion. This is not about spewing hate on one or the other. This is about Israeli colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!"
"I stand with my Palestinian brothers and sisters, I will protect and support you as best as I can. I LOVE YOU. I feel for you. And I cry for you. I wish I could take away your pain. The pain of a father not being able to hug his wife or babies again. Of a mother who has to bury her child before she has the chance to watch them grow. Of children that are future artists, doctors, that will never be able to get the education or attention they deserve."
"To the Tetas and jidos that have built homes for their families, that they will never be able to live in again. I see you. I hear you. I cry for you. And I am in pain for you. I have been told my entire life that who I am: a Palestinian woman - is not real. I've been told my father does not have a birth place if he is from Palestine. And I am here to say Palestine is very much real and the Palestinian people are here to stay and coexist. As they always have. And we will always come together as a family. Always."
Hours earlier, Bella posted a photo from her grandparents' wedding day, along with an image of her dad next to his seven siblings and their mother, to her Instagram, revealing the violence in the Middle East forced them out of Palestine in 1948.
"I love my family, I love my Heritage, I love Palestine," she wrote. "I will stand strong to keep their hope for a better land in my heart. A better world for our people and the people around them. They can never erase our history. History is history!"
She shared another emotional post in support of her father's homeland, writing, "You cannot allow yourself to be desensitized to watching human life being taken. You just can't. Palestinian lives are the lives that will help change the world. And they are being taken from us by the second. #FreePalestine."
The demonstration comes a week after decades-old tensions in Gaza between Israeli and Palestinian forces flared up again amid missile attacks in the West Bank. Things escalated at the start of the holy Muslim period of Ramadan last month (Apr21).