Sears Stops Sale of Pro-Palestine Shirts Following Wave of Backlash
By Daniel Gil/ Contributing Writer
Retail outlet Sears removed a line of pro Palestinian tee-shirts Tuesday from their online store amidst a wave of online backlash from groups and individuals in support of Israel claiming anti-semitism.
“Free Palestine, End Israeli Occupation,” “Free Palestine Free Gaza,” were just a couple of the slogans featured on the shirts in question. Along with written support for Palestine, the shirts also included images of clenched fists and hands signaling the peace sign basked in the colors of the Palestinian flag. Perhaps the most controversial image was an image of the whole of Israel covered by the words “Free Palestine.”
The Jewish advocacy organization B’nai B’rith stated that they were “…appalled at Sears jumping into a geo-political issue by selling glib t-shirts…”
The shirts were apparently being sold by third party German clothing company Spread Shirt.
The hashtag #boycottsears also resurfaced on twitter following the website’s offerings which have since been taken down.
In a comment given to The Washington Free Beacon, a spokesman for Sears stated that they believed their company was being “ unfairly singled out on this issue given that these same items are available on Amazon, Walmart.com and Ebay… It’s very important to note that we serve a broad base of customers around the country and around the world, and employ people around the world, including nearly 200 in Israel.”
This isn’t the first time the hashtag #boycottsears emerged on twitter. The birth of the hashtag came about in February following Sears’ statement that they would stop selling items from Ivanka Trump’s clothing line.