Mohamed Hadid, the luxury real estate developer father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, issued a public apology after sending racist, homophobic direct messages to Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, over the congressman’s support for Israel. The apology was not for the underlying sentiment behind the angry Instagram DMs, but for the language Hadid used to express those ideas.
In Hadid’s messages to Torres, reported by the New York Post, the businessman wrote, “You worse than the rats of New York sewage system. They have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as bouncer at gay bar.”
He also called Torres, the first openly gay Afro-Latino representative in the United States Congress, a “slave to whites” and added, “Make sure you dress as KKK to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours.”
His messages also included attacks on a pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Hadid wrote in one message to Torres, “You are just unusual Black and colorful mouth for Israeli and AIPAC and looking for payday of over 500K.”
“I need to apologize,” Hadid wrote Saturday. “Not for the anger I feel but for the words I used to express that anger. I intended to express how Mr. Torres is a shill being used by Israel. A state that not only mistreats Black and brown people but pinkwashes their atrocities using their projected gay rights as a shield for their human rights violations.”
“My feeling after 76 years of being a refugee from the country where I and my ancestors were born and watching a genocide unfold are at an all time high,” Hadid continued. “I am watching United State politicians work as AIPAC messengers of genocide.”
“I used the wrong words to express this anger but the anger is warranted,” Hadid asserted. “To send Black and brown and other marginalized communities to do the dirty work of two countries who have never respected them is wrong.”
In closing, Hadid wrote, “I apologize to my community for directing the conversation to this, and even for a minute away from Palestine. All eyes on Palestine. Free Palestine.”
The outspoken real estate mogul has previously said that President Biden “will be in the court with the rest of the Zionist Criminals. We will hunt them down like they did the Nazis.”
Torres told the New York Post that Hadid “has hurled just about every racist insult at me short of calling me the N-word. That Mr. Hadid felt so at ease demonizing and dehumanizing a black Member of Congress reveals a tragic truth about our politics: if you are a person of color and pro-Israel, you are fair game for racist invective.”
