This week, sports and fashion brand Adidas launched a new retro campaign starring model Bella Hadid. On the surface, it's business as usual — a famous fashion brand choosing a famous model to represent it.
However, with the upcoming Olympic Games starting next Friday in Paris, the German brand chose to re-release the SL 72 shoes, first introduced at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in an attack by the Palestinian terrorist organization "Black September."
Hadid, daughter of Palestinian real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid and Dutch model Yolanda Hadid, is known for her pro-Palestinian views. Since the October 7 massacre, she has posted anti-Israel statements and fake news about the Israel-Hamas war on social media.
The organization 'Stop Antisemitism' posted on Instagram and Twitter, accusing Adidas of reaching a new low: "With Adidas' Nazi roots and their support of Kanye West despite his antisemitism, what is Adidas trying to prove?" the statement read.
The murder of 11 Israeli athletes on Munich soil in September 1972 is a dark stain on the Olympic Games. Adidas' decision to re-launch a shoe model associated with those bloody Olympics, featuring Hadid in the campaign, in a year marked by a horrific massacre by Hamas in Israel, demonstrates extreme insensitivity.
As proof, the Shin Bet is currently conducting an unprecedented operation to ensure the safety of the Israeli delegation at the Paris Olympics.
Unlike campaigns suspected of having a political and symbolic nature relative to the war but which were created before October 7, the current campaign was only recently shot. Therefore, Adidas has no reasonable explanation other than a lack of sensitivity in the decision to feature Hadid in a context related to an Olympics where 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered.
Social media users called for a boycott of Adidas following the campaign starring Hadid, citing the company's Nazi past. Adidas founders, brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, were members of the Nazi party and produced ammunition in their shoe factory during World War II. According to information obtained by Ynet, the campaign will not be launched in Israel.
Ironically, boycott calls also come from Hadid's pro-Palestinian supporters, who claim Adidas is a Zionist company supporting Israel's alleged "genocide" in Gaza. In March this year, it was reported that Adidas donated $150 million to charities fighting antisemitism and racism, such as the Anti-Defamation League, from sales of Kanye West's shoes, with whom the company created the popular Yeezy line.
No response was received from Adidas Israel.
* Ynet contributed to this article.