A call on social media to boycott the products of the Spanish Product chain Zara, due to racist statements made by the company’s chief designer of women’s fashion against a Palestinian model.
The Middle East Monitor website said that Vanessa Perelman, in her “hateful” letters to Palestinian model Qaher Harhash, defended Israel’s war crimes, and rebuked the Palestinian people and the Islamic faith in her attack.
“You are trying to show the world that Israel is an evil country that is doing terrible things against the Palestinians,” Vanessa said in a conversation with Qaher. Oh my God I feel sick, it’s all lies but it’s okay, people in my field know the truth about Israel and Palestine and I will not stop defending Israel.”
In her response, which Harhash posted on Instagram before she closed her account after revealing her speech, she added, “People like you come and go in the end. Just as the Jews survived the Holocaust, we will also survive this media circus that you are spreading.”
“Maybe if your people were educated, they wouldn’t blow up the hospitals and schools that Israel helped fund in Gaza,” Vanessa added.
“Israel does not teach its children to hate or throw stones at soldiers as your people do,” she added.
The designer also ridiculed Qaher’s work in the field of fashion, noting that it contradicts the Islamic religion.
For his part, Harhash, who was born in occupied Jerusalem, indicated that Zara asked him to share an apology written by Vanessa, which he refused.
“If Zara wants to make a statement with me, the statement should say that they stand with the indigenous people and oppose what is happening in the Chinese concentration camps in Xinjiang, and they also need to address Islamophobia,” he stressed.
“When some fashion designers said anti-Semitic things, they were fired,” he added.
Soon, social media activists launched a campaign to boycott Zara, and Palestinian blogger Omar Gharib wrote, “Zara, we will not remain silent about your designer attacking the Palestinian model of supporting Palestine freedom, which incites hatred and pledges to defend Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip that show disgusting racism, Islamophobia and anti-Islamism.” Palestinians. Take action or boycott Zara.”
