Christmas item pulled from supermarket shelves after internet sees Hamas blunder

09 November 2023 , 13:26

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Christmas item pulled from supermarket shelves after internet sees Hamas blunder

A supermarket who launched a festive ‘Merry ham-mas’ bag to celebrate Christmas has pulled it from the shelves after people pointed out the association with Hamas fighters in Gaza.

Australian brand Kmart quickly realised the product wasn’t the light-hearted Christmas gift they initially thought when they received a complaint from the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) who said it was ‘really not a good look’. The organisation said they had a response to their email within the hour and the product was discontinued by the end of the day.

But the AJA did see the funny side and posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Kmart stuff up! Check out the special Christmas bag currently available via Kmart online. Yes, it’s real! Although this is potentially funny (the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes) it’s really not a good look. We suspect some product managers may cause the company some embarrassment. So we’ve politely written to Wesfarmers corporate suggesting the product be pulled.”

Kmart's Christmas bag was recalled by the end of the day

The bag, which was launched at a retail price of AU $4 (£2.09), has since been put up on eBay for an inflated AU $50 (£26) by a woman who says she will donate the profits to Save The Children Australia's Gaza Emergency Appeal. Whilst David Adler, president of the AJA, said he wanted ‘to give credit to Kmart management as they acted very quickly.’ He added: “It’s not normal times, there are people that will distort things and will harass the Jewish community.”

In a statement, a Kmart spokesperson said: "We got it wrong on this occasion, and we apologise unreservedly. When designing this product we clearly didn't think through all the implications and the product has been removed from sale."

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It comes after Marks & Spencer apologised for an outtake from its Christmas campaign that featured paper Christmas hats burning in a fire grate which the retailers captioned with, 'This Christmas, do only what you love...like saying no to paper hats'. But the post drew heavy criticism from followers who noticed the burning hats which were the colours of the Palestinian flag.

Jake Loader