The global boycott campaign against Zara is intensifying after the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement officially announced its adoption of the popular campaign to boycott the brand for its deep and growing support of the Israeli occupation.
BDS called on “people of conscience around the world to boycott Zara — the flagship brand of the Spanish multinational Inditex — for its entrenched role in Israel’s settler-colonial, apartheid, and genocidal system.”
What Is Zara?
Founded in 1974 in La Coruña, northern Spain, by businessman Amancio Ortega and his partner Rosalía Mera, Zara began as a small shop selling low-cost clothing. It expanded rapidly thanks to its innovative model of designing, producing, and distributing fashion.
Zara is Inditex’s most famous brand, part of one of the largest fashion corporations in the world, which also owns Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull&Bear, and others.
The company is known for its fast fashion model — rapidly producing new clothing lines in response to global trends, with design-to-store cycles as short as two weeks.
According to the Boycat ethical shopping platform, Inditex ranks at Level 2 on its ethical shopping index, reflecting serious concerns over its business relationships and ethical practices. Boycat allows users to search brands or scan product barcodes to check ethical compatibility and suggests alternative brands when needed.
Why Zara?
In early 2025, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continued, Zara opened its largest store ever near Tel Aviv — a 4,500-square-metre flagship in the “BIG Fashion Glilot” complex. The Jerusalem Post described it as “the first-ever integration in Israel of Zara and Zara Home under one roof, allowing shoppers to purchase everything from clothing and accessories to furniture and home décor in one place.”
This expansion came despite Israel’s ongoing, UN-documented crimes in Gaza, including mass killings, forced displacement, and cultural destruction. Zara emphasised its environmental ethics in the store announcement, pledging to reduce environmental impact, promote recycling, and reach “green revolution” goals by 2040.
BDS condemned the move, stressing that Zara already operates dozens of stores in Israel and is deepening its economic ties with the occupation while Palestinian life is being erased.
Mocking the Martyrs
In December 2023, Zara launched an ad campaign titled “The Jacket”, showing models wrapped in white shrouds beside crumbled statues — imagery that many saw as disturbingly similar to the shrouded bodies of Palestinians killed in Gaza. The campaign triggered outrage, leading Zara to delete the ad and issue a vague apology, avoiding any mention of its ties to Israel.
The images showed models with broken sculptures wrapped in plastic and fabric — scenes eerily reminiscent of Gaza’s devastation. Critics pointed to striking similarities between the ad and photos of grieving Palestinians holding their loved ones killed by Israeli bombs.
Zara’s statement claimed the campaign was conceived in July and shot in September 2023, “before the war began,” insisting the concept was merely artistic. Fashion watchdog Diet Prada compared the imagery side-by-side with scenes from Gaza, amplifying global backlash.
Political Ties: Ben-Gvir and Beyond
In October 2022, Zara’s Israeli franchise hosted an election campaign for extremist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, notorious for advocating the expulsion of Palestinians, shooting civilians, and blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. During the event, Ben-Gvir praised Zara, saying: “Beautiful clothes, beautiful Israelis.”
In June 2021, Vanessa Perilman, then Zara’s head women’s designer, made racist remarks against Palestinians in Instagram messages to Palestinian model Qaher Harhash. Zara issued a weak public statement distancing itself from her words, but took no real action.
Silence on Crimes — and Whitewashing
BDS notes that Zara and Inditex remained silent as Israel destroyed Gaza’s ancient cultural heritage, which dates back over 4,000 years, and assassinated prominent Palestinian fashion figures, including designer Walaa Al-Efrangi, founder of Fashion Room by Walaa, killed alongside her husband in Nuseirat Refugee Camp in December 2024.
In 2024, Zara selected Israeli model San Mazrahi as the face of its global campaign, effectively whitewashing Israeli war crimes with glossy branding. Her spokesperson proudly stated she was “the Israeli face representing our country around the world — especially in such times.”
Beyond Palestine: A Pattern of Abuse
Inditex’s complicity is not limited to Palestine. The corporation has faced allegations of abusive labour conditions in Brazil and worker rights violations in Myanmar, leading to its withdrawal from the latter after public pressure.
A legal analysis by Dr. Irene Pietropaoli for SOMO and Al-Haq found that corporate executives worldwide could be held legally accountable for complicity in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. The report warned that companies may also be guilty of silent or indirect complicity simply by operating in Israel, paying taxes to a government committing genocide, and maintaining close economic ties despite knowledge of the crimes.
The analysis cautioned Zara’s and Inditex’s executives that continuing operations and partnerships in apartheid Israel could cost them their businesses — and potentially result in legal consequences.
