Jordanian-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid — the father of models Gigi adn Bella Hadid — claimed on Saturday that former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was a "proud Palestinian" and that her comments about Palestinian identity proved that there was religious coexistence and tolerance prior to Zionism.
She [Meir] was proud Palestinian," Hadid said on Instagram, of a video excerpt that he posted of an interview of Meir by Thames TV in the 1970s. "There was [sic] Jews, Christian, Muslim, Palestinians, all Arabs. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir reiterated that she was a Palestinian, carrying a Palestinian passport, in this segment, even though the full interview reflects her colonial Zionist ideology bent on ethnic cleansing and erasing Palestine."
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"I'm Palestinian. From 1921 until 1948 I carried a Palestinian passport. There was no such thing in this area as Jews and Arabs and Palestinians," Meir said in Hadid's clip.
In the full interview, not included by Hadid, Meir goes on to say that "There were Jews and Arabs," and describes Palestinian identity as a modern development. "When were the Palestinians born?"Meir argued that there was no difference between Arabs on the West and East of the Jordan river and that there was no reason that Jordan couldn't have established a Palestinian state in the West Bank when they had ruled it.
"Golda is saying the Jews were the ones considered the 'Palestinians' back then!" said David Lange of IsraellyCool.
"Mohamed Hadid shares an interview in which Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir explains Arab Palestinian identity is a modern invention and he doesn’t even realize what an own goal this is," remarked Israeli writer Emily Schrader.
"Her remarks above do prove though, that tolerance, co-existence and peace were prevalent in Palestine pre-1948, where all faiths were welcomed and received equal rights in the holy land," said Hadid, father of models Gigi and Bella Hadid. "Then arrived colonial Zionism with the founding of the State of Israel and with it forced expulsions, nakba, occupation, apartheid and war crimes being committed daily to this day, that Golda Meir was directly complicit in, making her what?"Meir also discussed in the interview how pre-War of Independence, the Jews had accepted partition proposals and the idea of living alongside the Arabs, while the Mandate Arabs did not. She also decried Israel's neighbors for their inability to accept Israel's existence and the Jewish right to self-determination.