Amazon selling ‘Free Palestine’ clothes, after Sears and Walmart stop
US online giant continues to offer shirts, hats with pro-Palestinian messages, including ‘Free Palestine’ shirt showing map including all of Israel
Online sales giant Amazon continues to sell shirts and other clothing items calling to “Free Palestine,” after Sears and Walmart removed similar items from their websites.
The items are offered by Amazon via various third parties, and include shirts, hats and pins, some bearing Palestinian flags and many featuring a fist symbolizing resistance.
One shirt demanding “Free Palestine” features a drawing the covers the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, thus including all of Israel.
Sears said Wednesday it had removed a line of clothing featuring the slogan from its website. The clothing was offered for sale by another company, Spreadshirt Collection, and included tank tops, T-shirts and hoodies featuring a variety of pro-Palestinian messages.
The clothing was offered for sale through Sears Marketplace, which provides a platform for third-party sellers to market their wares through websites managed by Sears.
The designs included a clenched fist in the colors of the Palestinian flag and statements opposing the Israeli occupation.
Ynet news reported that Walmart was also selling the shirts and featured a screen capture of them for sale, but by later Wednesday they were no longer available.
According to a statement from a Sears spokesman, the apparel was pulled from the site based on feedback the company received.
“These items were being sold by a third-party seller via the Sears Marketplace,” said the statement, which was sent to JTA Tuesday afternoon. “Given the feedback we’ve received, they are being removed.”
The statement added that Sears felt it had been “unfairly singled out on this issue,” as similar items were available for purchase from other companies, such as Amazon and Walmart.
The Sears statement noted that the company serves “a broad base of customers around the country and around the world,” and that it has 200 employees in Israel.
Amazon has also been under fire recently for selling Holocaust-denying books on its website.
The books included “Did Six Million Really Die?” by Richard Harwood; “The Six Million: Fact or Fiction?” and “The Myth of the Extermination of the Jews.”
After receiving complaints the company initially removed the texts only from its websites in nations where Holocaust denial is illegal, including Italy, France and Germany. The books remained available for some time on Amazon’s US and UK stores, though they appear to no longer be available.
