In the aftermath of the developer’s strong backing of Palestine during its ongoing conflict with Israel, Mohamed Hadid, the father of Bella and Gigi Hadid, reportedly sent a string of discriminatory messages, including racism and homophobia, to U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres.
In screenshots obtained by ET, direct messages from Mohamed’s verified Instagram account purport to show the developer calling the Congressman from New York “worse than the rats of the New York sewage system.”
The message continues, “[T]hey have bigger brains than you. You might get a job as a bouncer at Gay Bar .. I promise you will never be in congress … slave to whits and make sure you dress as Kkk to hide that ugly gray colored face of yours.”
In another direct message, the luxury real estate developer allegedly slammed Torres as an “unusual Black and colorful mouth for Israeli and AiPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] and looking for pay day of over 500k for the next term. You will get it .. unfortunately.”
Mohamed’s authenticated Instagram profile also left a comment on Torres’ January 15 Instagram post, featuring a video of him delivering a sermon at New York City’s Central Synagogue.
“Sell out. Black out .. he forgot this is not about black and white it’s not about Palestine or the Zionist state .. this is about a great Black man not a little ….kisser to your financial backers. As there will not be a single black person in your community that leaves a nice word about you Mr. Nate .. selling your soul ..”
In a statement to ET, Ritchie claims Mohamed has been flooding him with “racist venom and vitriol” for months now.
“Since October 7th, I have been facing a flood of racist venom and vitriol simply because I express solidarity with both the Jewish people and the Jewish State. I will never capitulate to a racist mob,” Ritchie said.
“Most haters hide behind anonymous social media accounts, but Mohamed Hadid is so proud of his hatred for me that he felt no need to shroud his racism in anonymity. Whether it is dehumanizing me as worse than the rats of the NYC sewage system or telling me to dress like the KKK to ‘hide that gray colored face of yours,’ Mr. Hadid has hurled just about every racist insult at me shorting of calling me the N-word.”
The statement continued, “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. Enough with the double standard.”
