Bella Hadid, filled with hate, shoves Adidas sneakers commemorating the 1972 Olympics

What stood out as the most unforgettable moment of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics?

For most individuals—regardless of religion, the games are remembered with horror as the Munich Massacre.

Ten days after the opening ceremonies, members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

After gaining entry to their living quarters, the terrorists seized nine hostages and killed wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg and weightlifter Yossef Romano, who put up a fight against the attackers.

Despite the ongoing games, media attention shifted to cover the hostage crisis—marking the first time a terrorist incident was broadcast to a global audience live on TV.

Viewers anxiously watched as the German authorities botched a rescue attempt.

Ultimately, the terrorists heartlessly killed their hostages.

Audiences were shocked when ABC sportscaster Jim McKay broke the tragic news: “They’re all gone.”

A new era of global conflict emerged as terrorists realized that news coverage heightened the impact of their crimes.

No one in their right mind would look back fondly on the 1972 Olympics. There are no pleasant recollections from those games.

However, in anticipation of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Adidas has decided to reintroduce their 1972 Olympic sneakers, launching an advertising campaign to promote the retro footwear.

Surprisingly, Bella Hadid, a model known for her public support of Hamas on social media, was chosen as the face of the shoes.

It might seem like a fitting choice for a company founded by a former Nazi.

Adolf (“Adi”) Dassler, a onetime Nazi Party member, established Adidas in Germany in the aftermath of World War II.

Prior to this, Dassler manufactured sports shoes endorsed by Adolf Hitler, as writer Andrew Lapin explained.

“During the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympic games, orchestrated by Hitler to showcase Aryan athletic supremacy internationally, many German athletes wore Dassler shoes,” Lapin wrote.

Ironically, the 1972 Munich games were intended to erase the memory of Berlin 1936.

Almost 30 years after the Holocaust, West German authorities made significant efforts to distance themselves from the Nazi era.

Yet today, a company that rose to fame during the 1936 Games is evoking nostalgia for the Olympics where Israelis were abducted and killed simply for being Jewish.

Adidas’ collaboration with Hadid is as appropriate as its partnership with another well-known anti-Semitic figure, Kanye West.

Just a few years ago, it took Adidas six days to sever ties with West after he arrogantly claimed on a podcast, “I can literally say antisemitic stuff and they can’t drop me.”

Hadid’s well-documented eagerness to echo Hamas’ propaganda long predates Adidas’ association with the model.

She has consistently portrayed PR messages for the terrorists still holding 120 individuals captive in Gaza, including eight Americans and two young children.

Following the recent heroic rescue of four Israeli hostages, Hadid posted a photo of former captive Almog Meir Jan, who survived eight months on scant rations of pita bread.

As a form of psychological torment, Hamas presented him with a cake on his birthday, reminding him of marking the occasion in literal chains.

Her post commended Hamas for giving Meir Jan the cake—omitting the beatings and torture he endured.

In 2021, Hadid shared a graphic claiming that Israel was not a country but a territory settled by colonizers.

She deleted the post after facing criticism—replacing it with a video of Sen. Bernie Sanders stating, “It is not antisemitic to be critical of a right-wing government in Israel.”

Yet, Hadid wasn’t criticizing the Israeli government—she was questioning the existence of the Jewish state itself.

In her perspective, and in the perspectives of antisemites like her, Israel should not exist, and has no entitlement to rescue its citizens seized on Oct. 7, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

The organization StopAntisemitism informed me that Adidas’ “decision raises serious concerns about the company’s commitment to distancing itself from its Nazi origins.”

On Thursday, subsequent to initial criticism, Adidas attempted to backtrack on the hiring of Hadid.

“We recognize that connections have been made to tragic historical events—although these were entirely unintentional,” the firm stated, announcing plans to “revise” its advertising campaign. Adidas did not specify the nature of this revision.

Hadid and Adidas make a well-suited pair.

And outspoken antisemites have a new footwear option to declare their hatred for Jews, in bright red—perfectly matching the Jewish blood shed in Munich in 1972.

Truly a blast from the past.

Bethany Mandel is the co-author of “Stolen Youth” and a homeschooling mother of six in the greater Washington, DC area.