Bella Hadid has taken to Instagram to promote a small Palestinian business in New York. The model shared photos inside the independent New York record store owned by Palestinian businessman Jamal Alnasr and encouraged her Instagram followers to visit.
She shared Village Revival Records' exact Greenwich Village address in the caption, along with a series of images inside the store.
"197 bleeker street NY, NY @villagerevivalrecordsnyc Please go visit my friend Jamal," she wrote along with the letters PS, standing for Palestine, and a love heart emoji.
Alnasr first opened his store Village Music in 1994. After closing briefly in 2017, he reopened his business with the new moniker.
“In Palestine, I thought I knew something about music. My dad was open-minded for that part of the world, so we had a few extra freedoms. I had a little radio that I took with me everywhere," Alnasr has written about his shop and its history on the Village Revival Records website.
"A lot of my friends were listening to Arabic music, but I listened to Madonna and Michael Jackson. So I felt pretty cool. But when I came to New York at the age of 17, I started working at my uncle’s record store. Customers would come in asking about Bob Marley, Barbara Streisand, Louis Armstrong. I knew nothing about these people. And suddenly I didn’t feel cool any more. I felt like an outsider. So I made a promise to myself: I was going to learn all of it.
"I began spending my salary on music magazines. Everything I came across — I wanted to know more. Who’s Sam Cooke? Who’s Marvin Gaye? And I didn’t just want to know it, I wanted to live it. My friends would wait for me until the store closed at 10 PM, and we’d go to clubs in the Village. Music became my way of engaging with people in this new society."
On her Instagram, Hadid shared a photo of herself hugging Alnasr, as well as photos of records, including Billie Holiday and The Rolling Stones releases, and the compilation album Palestine Lives! Songs from the Struggle of the People of Palestine.
The model's father Mohamed Hadid was born in Palestine, and commented on the post saying he "can't wait" to visit. "I love you Bella for all you do for your community your family your friends and you beautiful Palestinian people," he wrote.
Bella has long been a vocal supporter of Palestine. Last month, she joined a social media trend, sharing a personalised Little Miss meme, which read “Little Miss won’t stop talking about Palestine”. The post was originally shared by her cousin Lina Hadid.
Earlier this year, Bella spoke out against Israel's storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and accused Instagram of shadow banning her Stories.
“My Instagram has disabled me from posting on my story — pretty much only when it is Palestine based I assume,” the model, 25, said. “When I post about Palestine, I get immediately shadow banned and almost one million less of you see my stories and posts.”
“I wonder what they are trying to hide by censoring me? I wonder what they are hiding when they try to [censor], harass, attack innocent journalists doing their job,” she questioned.
The Hadid family, including Bella’s supermodel sister Gigi, regularly post pictures highlighting their Middle Eastern and Palestinian heritage. Mohamed and his family were among those who left Palestine during the Nakba of 1948.
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