Anti-Israel Billionaire Shutters Beverly Hills Hiking Trails To Build Mega Mansion

Hadid family has a history of anti-Semitism

Josh Christenson • September 2, 2021 2:00 pm

A billionaire Los Angeles real estate mogul with a family history of anti-Semitism is building a multimillion-dollar estate that is blocking access to a beloved wilderness area in Beverly Hills, according to the Daily Mail.

Mohamed Hadid, a Palestinian who made headlines in 2020 for equating the state of Israel with police brutality in the United States, is constructing the largest home ever permitted in Los Angeles County, with an asking price of $250 million. If purchased at that price, the property will be the most expensive residence ever sold in California. The construction of the 80,000-square-foot mansion, which is expected to take two years, has forced the closure of national hiking trails in the Santa Monica Mountains.

“NOTICE: Trail closed by developer Mohamed Hadid. Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy & MRCA sued to keep this trail open but lost at the Court of Appeal,” a sign posted at one of the closed trailheads read.

Hadid in 2020 shared a cartoon on Instagram that depicted a white cop, who is kneeling on the neck of a black man, embracing an Israeli soldier, who is kneeling on the neck of a Palestinian man. “Two sides of the same coin,” he wrote in the post. He later apologized if his “remark came off with Anti-Semitism toward the Jewish people,” adding that he was upset over the shooting of an autistic Palestinian man by Israeli police, but has since deleted that apology.

Mohamed is the father of models Gigi, Bella, and Anwar Hadid, each of whom has in recent years been accused of anti-Semitism. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Anwar Hadid in 2018 called for the death of every member of the Israel Defense Forces.

“I don’t give a fuck to know about the IDF lady,” Hadid texted an Israeli woman who served in the IDF. “Its [sic] the last thing I care about I wish them all to be erased from the planet.” He has also called Israel an “apartheid” state.

Bella Hadid, who has a large social media following, made anti-Semitic comments in May following the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas. In a video post, Hadid was seen chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a chant used by those who call for the destruction of Israel. In another post, she referred to “Israeli colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people.” Gigi Hadid, who also has a large social media following, has shared many of her sister’s posts.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in May excoriated the Hadid sisters and their brother’s girlfriend, English singer Dua Lipa, for having “accused Israel of ethnic cleansing” and “vilified the Jewish State.” Lipa that month said members of the Israeli government were “fake Jews.”

Mohamed Hadid’s other real estate projects have earned the ire of wildlife and nature conservancy groups in the area. One group calls itself “Hillsides Against Hadid.”