The Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has written to e-commerce website Etsy Australia and to Melbourne based online retailer Redbubble calling on the companies to remove a shirt that calls for the end of Israel.
The merchandise in question is printed with the slogan, “Make Israel Palestine Again” and is sold on both sites.
Another shirt, sold only on Etsy, shows a map of Israel with the word PALESTINE written next to it.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“What’s next, products that endorse the extermination of Jews around the world?
These shirts, plainly and simply, call for the elimination of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state.
Any product that explicitly promotes the destruction of a country which is home to nearly 50 per cent of the world’s Jews is antisemitism of the worst kind and is beyond the pale.
And while people are free to produce such materials, Etsy and Redbubble should not provide a forum for anyone who is employing genocidal language targeting Jews.
These divisive products, that are cloaking hatred and violence with a ‘cool’, ‘edgy’ look, borrow rhetoric that is straight from the Hamas terrorist playbook and should be condemned.
If these companies decide to continue allowing such objects to be sold, they owe us all an explanation of why incitement against any people is within the boundaries of legitimate trade.
Clearly, these goods violate the community guidelines of both companies, especially Redbubble’s prohibition of “Work that glorifies or trivialises violence” and Etsy’s policy on “Hate Items: Items that Promote, Support or Glorify Hatred.”
We call on both companies to immediately stop selling these items and to ensure such moral lapses in judgement do not occur again.”