Bella Hadid accuses Instagram of bullying after removing her "Proud Palestinian" post
U.S. model Bella Hadid at Cannes Film Festival. (AFP Photo)


U.S. model Bella Hadid accused social media platform Instagram of bullying after it removed a story in which she said how proud she was of her father’s Palestinian heritage.

Hadid on Tuesday shared a photograph of her father’s long-expired American passport, which stated his birthplace as Palestine, writing "My baba and his birthplace of Palestine." Shortly afterward, she received a notification from the photo-sharing platform to say that her content went against the community guidelines of Instagram.

"@Instagram exactly what part of me being proud of my father’s birthplace of Palestine is "bullying, harassment, graphic or sexual nudity?" she said while sharing a screenshot of the removal notification. "Are we not allowed to be Palestinian on Instagram? This, to me, is bullying," she added.

She finished her post by saying: "You can’t erase history by silencing people. It doesn’t work like that."

Twenty-year-old Hadid is one of the most photographed and in-demand models of the moment, dominating the catwalk in the fall/winter 2017 fashion season in New York and Europe.

She is the younger daughter of Palestinian-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, who emigrated to the United States when he was a teenager and Dutch-born model Yolanda Hadid.

Older sister Gigi is a supermodel and younger brother Anwar is also a model.

Earlier this year, she said she is proud to be a Muslim and the daughter of a refugee while defying U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban.

In January, the Hadid sisters marched against Trump's first attempted travel ban, which sought to restrict visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries until it was slapped down by the judiciary.

They were photographed in New York carrying a poster that said "We are all Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Christians, Jews."