The Influencer
You’re watching a slow animation transforming actress, model, ex-IDF combatant, and vocal zionist Gal Gadot turn into Bella Hadid, model, actress and an outspoken critic of Zionism and supporter of an end to the Occupation of Palestine.
Other than their minor political differences they’re pretty much identical. Between them they share 98.2 million followers instagram followers, pretty much evenly split, making them both immensely powerful “social media influencers”. What is an influencer? It is a person, with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media as a result of the size of their audience. Normally they get paid to sell skincare products…. but let’s look at how these two have been using their influence.
The actor Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, posted a message about the ongoing violence, saying her "heart breaks" as her "country is at war," saying she was worried for her friends and family. "Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation," she wrote in the post. "Our neighbors deserve the same. Instead of referring to the people of Gaza as Palestinians under forced occupation she calls them “our neighbours”, at once defining the shape and name of the Jewish States and obliterating the existence of the Palestinians.
While Hadid spoke of intersectional solidarity:” “Future generations will look back in disbelief and wonder how we allowed the Palestinian suffering to continue for so long. A human tragedy unfolding right in front of our eyes. Politicians stutter neutral words in fear of being reprimanded, whilst the world remains silent to avoid offending the wrong people. It is not antisemitic to be critical of a right-wing government in Israel….History has taught us to speak up. You are on the right side or you are not. It’s that simple…”
The Influencer is a collaboration between Adam Broomberg and Isaac Schaal
