Fashion in poor taste
'These divisive products, which promote hatred and violence, borrow rhetoric that is straight from the Hamas terrorist playbook and should be condemned'.
PILLOWS, miniskirts, tote bags … all items you’d expect to see on an online shopping site.
The only difference on Melbourne-based retailer Redbubble: these items had the horrific chimneys and train tracks of Auschwitz printed over them. Disturbing, isn’t it?
This incident was last year, and we had hoped we wouldn’t have to report about other ghastly products making their way onto the company’s website following Redbubble’s apology for the considerable hurt that had been caused.
Miniskirts and cushions were certainly not what survivors had in mind when they hoped their horrors would be remembered for generations to come.
Which brings us to this week.
Now Redbubble, and its American-based counterpart Etsy, have come under fire for selling products that call for the elimination of the State of Israel, and its replacement with a Palestinian state.
You read that right.
Starting from $23, you can buy your very own slim fit “Make Israel Palestine Again” t-shirt in a range of colours and sizes. They even offer express delivery.
As Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich noted, “These divisive products, which promote hatred and violence, borrow rhetoric that is straight from the Hamas terrorist playbook and should be condemned.”
Yet as The AJN went to print on Wednesday, these t-shirts, that employ genocidal language and incitement to violence against a nation, were freely available for purchase.
This is simply unacceptable.
As we reported this week, another item on Redbubble had also drawn condemnation from the ADC: a t-shirt featuring the word “Resist” with a picture of Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled holding a rifle.
In a statement to The AJN, Redbubble said, “We take a strong stance against racism and violence, and have a dedicated team charged with proactively reviewing the tens of thousands of designs that are uploaded each day and removing content that does not meet our Community Guidelines and User Agreement.”
While Redbubble has removed the Khaled t-shirt, we call on the companies to do the decent thing and remove the others too.
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