Los Angeles real estate developer Mohamed Hadid in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 2018. Photo: WENN via Reuters.

Prominent Los Angeles real estate developer Mohamed Hadid apologized on Sunday for linking Israel to police violence in the United States against people of color.

Hadid, who is the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, and is of Jordanian-Palestinian descent, posted an image on Instagram showing an American policeman kneeling on the neck of an African-American man while embracing an Israeli soldier doing the same to a Palestinian.

Mohamed Hadid’s original Instagram post linking Israel to police violence in the United States against people of color.

The original poster of the image wrote “two sides of the same coin” over it.

The pose echoed that seen in the now infamous video of a Minneapolis policeman kneeling on George Floyd’s neck until he died, which has set off massive and often violent protests against police brutality across the US.

Hadid apologized by posting an image on Instagram of an Israeli soldier and an elderly Palestinian man holding hands, and referenced the shooting over the weekend of an autistic Palestinian by Israeli police. An investigation into that incident is ongoing.

Hadid’s statement read in part, “Shooting an unarmed young man that has Autism and killing him hurt me deeply. If my remark came off with Anti-Semitism toward the Jewish people I do apologize.”

“I think it was a wrong time for me to be angry about what happened in Jerusalem yesterday,” he added. “You are right to be upset.”

“Love and peace and coexistence is the answer,” Hadid asserted.

View this post on Instagram

A picture like this gives me hope that the day will come that we can all coexist together in this holy land .. the strong will lend a helping hand to the weak. Live peacefully and respectful for each other. Shooting an unarmed young man that has Autism and killing him hurt me deeply If my remark came off with Anti-Semitism toward the Jewish people I do apologize. I think it was a wrong time for me to be angry about what happened in Jerusalem yesterday .. you are right to be upset ..Love and peace and coexistence is the answer. No one is leaving. We need to figure out a resolution and not an isolation .. my best and dearest Jewish friend understand my love for my culture as I understand there love for their religion and country. But we respect each other’s opinions. We are cousins. We might have difference but we must respect each other and stop the violence against each other. I am confident that the life of th Palestinians and the Israelis will improve in the near future. I want to live to see the day. Love you all the religions as we all know. Response To Common Inaccuracy: Arabs Cannot be Anti-Semitic – ADL Inaccuracy: Arabs who hate Jews cannot be labeled “ anti-Semitic” because they themselves are Semites. To make things clear. We are cousins if you like or not. Let’s love please and not spread hate. And I don’t hate I eat with them for times a week .. lots of back and forth but regardless how we leave we give each a hug and blessing each other for the health of them and their family. I hate leaving angry calling me this anti semantic while i am semantic. Let’s wake up to a better day.

A post shared by Mohamedhadid. (@mohamedhadid) on May 31, 2020 at 1:09am PDT

Model and singer Dua Lipa, who is dating Hadid’s son Anwar, also sought to draw a connection between Israel and US police brutality, posting an image of a man being arrested by Israeli soldiers, under which was written, “While everybody’s in the mood to talk about human rights, this is what happens EVERYDAY in Palestine.”

“The big bad tough guys of the #IDF thoroughly enjoy beating and shooting children,” the original poster added. He also said that Israelis are “fake” Jews, a common antisemitic claim.

The post has since been taken down. Lipa has not apologized thus far.

Claims linking the actions of American law enforcement officers to Israel are disseminated by an ongoing organized campaign called “Deadly Exchange,” which posits that racist police tactics in the US are inspired by their Israeli counterparts.

Critics say that this is a blood libel and responsible for inciting incidents of antisemitic violence.

In response to the Democratic Socialists of America’s BDS national working group’s accusations on this issue last week, some critics expressed outrage to the Algemeiner.

B’nai B’rith International said, “This is a case of exploiting the tragic and tense situation in Minneapolis to advance the motives of the BDS movement to demean and delegitimize Israel.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper — associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center — said that, similar to previous attempts to exploit such incidents, “non-existent dots were connected” to portray “the Palestinians as people of color fighting white Israel. … We Jews know all about antisemites connecting non-existent dots to denigrate our people.”