Israel’s far-right national security minister has sparred with US supermodel Bella Hadid over comments this week that Palestinians condemned as racist.
In an interview with N12 News on Wednesday, Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the right to life and movement for settlers in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank trumped the right to movement for Palestinians.
Palestinians have long railed against travel restrictions, including checkpoints, imposed on them by Israel in the occupied West Bank, an area where they exercise limited self-rule.
Ben-Gvir, who lives in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, said in the interview the curbs were needed to protect his family’s security.
“My right, my wife’s right, my children’s right to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria is more important than the right to movement for Arabs,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical Hebrew name.
Supermodel Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian and who has been a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, criticised Ben-Gvir’s comment on Instagram, where she has close to 60 million followers.
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