Most of you have probably seen this story. A popular retail chain in the US was selling a t-shirt showing a Palestinian child-terrorist holding an AK-47, along with maps of the territories and a PLO flag. Pro-Israeli people complained, the chain stopped selling the shirt.
This is actually the third such controversy for this retailer (you can google around to figure out which one; I don’t want to give the bastards a free ad). They previously were taken to task for selling a kafiya which they sweetly called an ‘anti-war scarf’. And before that, they had a shirt with the words “Everybody loves a Jewish girl” and pictures of dollar signs and shopping bags.
What interested me were some of the reactions.
“All fashion is political in nature. Since most people today aren’t directly involved in politics, fashion is a good way to reach people and raise their awareness about the Israeli occupation,” argued Sami Zeibak, a Palestinian fashion journalist living in Tel Aviv.
“Jewish people should not be offended by this because it is not anti-Jewish and not anti-Israel, it is anti-occupation. — Ha’aretz
Right, Sami, tell it to the relatives of the thousands of victims of Palestinian terrorism before the occupation of 1967. Or to the people getting hit today by Qassams coming from Free Palestinian Non-occupied Hamastan (Gaza).
There is a stylized version of the word “VICTIMIZED” at the bottom of the design. Is it not simply true that some Palestinians and especially Palestinian children are victims of this terrible conflict? I am of the opinion they are. — Rick Klotz, owner of the company that makes the shirts
Hmm, that’s good. So the shirt is actually anti-terrorism? It looks more like a propaganda poster to me, and the line through the word ‘victimized’ implies that the child is not victimized. But Rick, how do you spin this one (picture at right)? Yes, those were definitely the good ol’ days, getting paid by the Soviets to destabilize governments and kill people in the name of anti-imperialism.
By the way, Rick’s site also hosts a blog called “The world’s got problems” which could be subtitled “a really sophomoric left-wing look at current events for pre-teens”. ‘Problems’ include cyclones, Bush, Hillary, and the Iraq war, while the writer seems to approve of Barack Obama.
Interestingly, some anti-shirt people are not opposed to them because they are pro-terrorism, but because the people who wear them are not real terrorists. “Posers! They pay $28 for a shirt and think they’re somebody”, wrote one blogger whose link I’ve lost. I agree.
Technorati Tags: victimized, t-shirt, Palestinian child abuse, terrorism