By Micha “Mitch” Danzig
SAN DIEGO — Recently it was discovered that Sears, Walmart and Amazon were selling on their respective websites “Free Palestine” shirts with clenched fists and similar hateful anti-Israel rhetoric.
In response to concerns expressed by many in the Jewish and pro-Israel community, both Sears and Walmart agreed to stop selling the offensive items. Notably, it is not uncommon for retailers like Sears and Amazon to stop selling inflammatory products out of respect for the offense it causes to minority groups.
A good example is the June 2015 decision of Walmart, Amazon and Sears to stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. Walmart’s spokesperson back then said: “We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our web site.”
And while it is certainly understandable why the Confederate flag would be offensive to many people in the United States, including of course African-Americans, it is notable that the Confederate flag reminds us of a past horror, while the violent rhetoric employed by the anti-Israel apparel – still being sold by Amazon – promotes the elimination of the State of Israel and incites future violence.
As a result, I wrote the following to Amazon Customer Service.
As a long time Amazon customer and Amazon Prime Member, whose family has regularly purchased products from Amazon ranging from consumer electronics to groceries to books and everything in between, I was deeply disturbed to see that one of my (until now) favorite online marketplaces is allowing vendors to sell anti-Israel propaganda apparel on its website.
While these products are plainly not produced by Amazon itself, enabling such politicization and hatred, in clothing for sale to Americans, is distasteful (at best), as the Amazon website is supposed to be a place for all to engage in commerce regardless of opinion or ideology. And it certainly should be free of anti-Semitic rhetoric. I urge you to please note that when people write “Free Palestine” (and emblazon that statement with a clenched fist no less) or chant “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” they are talking about wiping the entire State of Israel off the map. They are also denying Jewish history, the deep Jewish connection to the land of Israel and the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their indigenous homeland, the land of Israel. These shirts and similar apparel with their eliminationist rhetoric and clenched fist emblems also plainly promote and encourage violence. The people who peddle in such eliminationist rhetoric also support genocidal anti-Semitic terrorist organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. And if they don’t support these terrorist organizations directly, then they certainly excuse and encourage their terrorism and their murder of Jews.
I strongly urge Amazon to take immediate action against the sale of apparel seeking the destruction of the State of Israel and to have such goods removed from its website.
Thank you. Yours, Micha Danzig
I have no issue with anyone using my letter as the basis for any email they want to send to Amazon registering their concern. Please also feel free to forward this to your friends and family.
I also encourage polite phone calls to Amazon at 1-888-280-4331 expressing your concerns and your request that Amazon stop selling such products.
*
Danzig is an attorney and Israel advocate based in San Diego.