The controversial editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar sparked anger in the gilded halls of the Hearst-owned glossy after calling Israel’s move to cut power to Gaza the “most inhuman thing” she’s “ever seen” in her life.
Samira Nasr, whose father is Lebanese and whose mother is Trinidadian, wrote on her Instagram Stories Tuesday night: “Cutting off water and electricity to 2.2 million civilians…This is the most inhuman thing I’ve seen in my life.”
The post sparked immediate blowback from Hearst staffers and fashion industry insiders still fuming over Hamas terrorists killing more than 1,200 Israelis, many of them children.
“Really? That’s the most inhumane she’s seen?” said one Hearst employee. “So , murder, rape and beheading is not?”
“Yesterday, when the news of beheaded babies emerged, Samira posts this,” an outraged fashion exec told The Post.
Influencer Moti Ankari, who has contributed to lifestyle publications like Bloomberg Pursuits, Glamour and GQ magazine, also weighed in via Instagram.
“Was @samiranasr off Instagram this weekend? And missed how 260 Israelis were murdered? How children were beheaded? How families were murdered in cold blood and then put on Facebook live for their families to find out? How children were being kidnapped?”
Ankari also tagged the fashion magazine and Hearst, writing: “This is @harpersbazaarus editor in chief. How much do you dehumanize Israelis? Perhaps she should put on her next cover: ‘We support the killing and kidnapping of Israeli children’ on her dying magazine.”
He concluded: “PS any normal person with common sense would rather not have electricity or water than their heads chopped off and their bodies burned.”
Reps for Hearst and Bazaar did not return requests for comment. Nasr did not respond to requests for comment.
A source said that Nasr sent out an apology to staff hours after The Post reached out for comment.
It is unclear whether Hearst has spoken to Nasr about her post. Nasr, who was catapulted to the role of editor in chief in 2020 from Vanity Fair where she worked as an executive fashion director, has been a lightening-rod figure.
The 59-year-old editor, who grew up in Montreal, spoke of how her background has informed her career and her design aesthetic in a spread for her magazine.
“Half my family is Muslim and I knew Islam to be a beautiful, peaceful religion, so I thought I had to become a journalist because I needed to be able to counter these stories,” Nasr said from her tony Park Slope apartment.
In 2021, during a flareup in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Nasr posted on Instagram: “One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & women’s rights, condemn corrupt & abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression. It does not add up. You cannot pick & choose whose human rights matter more.”
At the time Hearst, which publishes glossies like “Elle,”Cosmopolitan” and “Esquire,” did not publically address the Instagram post.
