Gigi Hadid Accusing Israel of Organ Harvesting Sparks Fury

Gigi Hadid has come under fire for resharing a video that says Israel has harvested the organs of dead Palestinians.

Taking to Instagram, the model reshared the video by user Umme Murtaza (umme_murtazaa). In the clip, Murtaza told followers to "watch this disturbing video, where health officials admitted that Israeli authorities had harvested the organs of dead Palestinians for years without their consent."

She then cuts to footage of Meira Weiss—an anatomist and professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—discussing organ harvesting with two reporters as part of an investigative report that aired on Israel Channel 2 in 2015. The news segment alleged that the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine was stealing organs from Palestinian prisoners detained by Israeli forces.

"We do not touch soldiers' bodies, we take from others," she said. "They used to take the organs from the bodies of Palestinians and then the immigrants and foreign workers."

Following Weiss' interview, the next scene shows reporters talking to Maika Chouat, who is described as director of the Israeli Skin Bank.

"Is this skin bank big compared to other banks around the world?" the reporters asked, with Chouat informing them it's the largest skin bank in the world.

"What is the organ donation rate given the population of Israel?" one reporter asks, to which Chouat laughed and said: "I can't give an answer, the rate is very low."

Newsweek has reached out to Gigi Hadid for comment via email.

Pro-Israel social media users slammed the 28-year-old, accusing her of "blood libel."

"Gigi Hadid has always been trash but this is straight up vile antisemitic blood libel. She should be dropped by every contract and agency," said Trinity Votes.

"Gigi Hadid has reached a new low," agreed @StopAntisemites.

"Really? Harvesting organs? Cmon man," wrote @Osint613, while @visegrad24 claimed the runway star is spreading "conspiracy theories."

Does Israel Harvest the Organs of Dead Palestinians?

In 2009, an interview Dr Yehuda Hiss—former head of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute—was leaked. Recorded in 2000 by Nancy Scheper-Hughes—professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley—Hiss said that pathologists at the institute took skin, corneas, bones and heart valves from the bodies of Israeli citizens, Israeli soldiers, Palestinians and immigrants, often without consent from the deceased's family.

"We started to harvest corneas ... whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family," Hiss said.

The Israeli military also confirmed that organ harvesting took place, but that it ended in the 1990s.

"This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer," a spokesperson told Israel Channel 2.

However, in her book On Their Dead Bodies, Weiss alleged the practice continued until 2002, claiming the organs were taken for research, medical education and transplantation purposes.

According to Irina Tsukerman—a U.S. human rights and national security lawyer specializing in the Middle East and the founder of Scarab Rising—organ harvesting by the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute was not considered a political issue initially, and didn't gain traction overseas until the practice had already ended.

"The tissues that were harvested back in the 1990s came from people of all backgrounds; so it was a medical ethics issue, not an issue of discrimination or targeting," she told Newsweek.

"It became politicized in 2009 when the Swedish tabloid, inspired by this incident, accused the IDF of [still] harvesting Palestinian organs. That caused massive outrage because it had no basis and was used as a blood libel to discredit the Israeli military."

The recording of Hiss was released in response to an article by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The publication featured interviews with Palestinians who alleged that young men from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were being killed by the Israeli military and their bodies returned with organs missing.

Donald Bostrom—the journalist who wrote the article—said there was no evidence of Israeli forces stealing Palestinians for organ harvesting, but that he believed Israel's donation policy needed to be investigated.

In a statement at the time, Israel's health ministry said: "The guidelines at that time were not clear. For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law."

However, Tsukerman said allegations that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) steal organs from Palestinians have "taken on a life of their own" online.

"It traveled widely among conspiracy theorists and in particular in Palestinian circles, until it became quite common to accuse Israel of organ harvesting," she said.

"While most of the world has not changed its mind about Israel on the basis of this particular accusation, the fact is that it continues circulating, changing little since the original story which inspired it."

The daughter of American Palestinian real estate developer Mohamed Hadid, Gigi Hadid and her sister Bella have long been outspoken supporters of Palestinians—often dividing fans with their statements on the conflict with Israel.

In October, the Israeli government hit out at Gigi Hadid on social media, after she criticized its treatment of Palestinians on Instagram.

Update 11/27/23, 04:51 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.

Update 12/1/23, 05:41 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and quotes from expert Irina Tsukerman.