The New York Times (NYT) published a full-page ad that accused part-Palestinian Hadid sisters and British-Albanian pop star Dua Lipa of holding anti-semitic views when they showed solidarity with Palestinians.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the head of the World Values Network, is said to be the main source behind organizing and producing the advertisement.
One of the Twitter users shared the photo of NYT ad that blamed all three stars for spreading anti-semitic views during Israel-Palestine conflict.
here’s the bottom half of the ad with the paid by disclosure btw pic.twitter.com/8IshXjAzlu
— Matthew (@matthewduchesne) May 22, 2021
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“Bella, Gigi, and Dua, Hamas calls for a second holocaust. Condemn them now,” read the headline of the advertisement.
Shortly, the internet took the matter by storm, and Grammys winner Dua Lipa immediately responded to the bigoted ad.
— DUA LIPA (@DUALIPA) May 22, 2021
Moreover, the NYT full-page ad was also noticed by prominent Pakistani personalities and they too completely condemned it.
The eminent writer Fatima Bhutto questioned the newspaper for running a harassment campaign against three stars.
This is Islamophobic, racist bullying. @nytimes you took money to run this harassment campaign against three young women? It’s defamatory and I read it as a threat. https://t.co/jwjIWiX4oD
— fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) May 22, 2021
In addition to it, fashion designer Khadijah Shah seconded Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s thoughts that Israel has “influence over media and deep pockets”.
The NYT @nytimes runs a full page add accusing dua lipa, Bella and Gigi Hadid of being Hamas, because they spoke for the right to life and liberty for #Palestine– there could not be a clearer example of Israel having “influence over media and deep pockets”- #Palestine pic.twitter.com/RPWSWKAwZL
— khadijah shah (@khadijah_shah) May 23, 2021
Commenting on the NYT full-page ad, Abi Wilkinson and commentator Hend Amry also believed that it was not appropriate for a newspaper of such credibility to allow publication of such matter.
Fwiw if there was an ad suggesting named pro-Israel celebrities were responsible for various genocidal statements made by senior Israeli politicians in recent years, I’d also consider a clear attempt at intimidation & not appropriate for a newspaper to run https://t.co/VK8vRVuZ6P
— Abi Wilkinson (@AbiWilks) May 22, 2021
This is what happens when you advocate for Palestinian human rights. This is the silencing mechanism that has worked so well for so long. This is tyranny. These are the stakes. https://t.co/Ihvizmlav4
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) May 23, 2021