"Before you go all 'cultural appropriation' in my comments, check out the last name," she captioned a photo of henna tattoos. "Hadid. Half Palestinian & proud of it." She also spoke to Gulf News back in October about visiting the Middle East. "I love it here and I love going to places that remind me of my dad’s side of the family," she explained. Gulf News reports that Hadid's father was born in Palestine and moved to America when he was fourteen. "I especially love it when you meet other Arabs," she continued. "There’s such a sense of family regardless of whether you are blood related or not anywhere in the world. When someone comes up to me and they tell me, ‘I’m Palestinian’ and we make a connection, it’s beautiful." In this same interview, Hadid falsely claimed that Zayn Malik was half Middle Eastern, which people on Twitter were quick to correct.