Cotton On has been called out for selling a globe of the world that swapped the ‘Israel’ name for a symbol and stuck ‘Palestine’ in its place.
The globes were being sold in the retailers’ stationary outlet store, Typo, and have become the subject of much dismay to one Dr Dvir Abramovich.
The chair of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League told news.com.au that when a customer complained about the globes, the response was that the globes were “deemed to be accurate for commercial purposes”.
“They came up with the ridiculous argument that they didn’t have enough space to put the word ‘Israel’ but had enough space to put ‘Palestine’, which is a non-existent country,” he said.
Abramovich also claimed there was a “growing and disturbing trend of wiping Israel off world maps”, adding that it was “hurtful” and “damaging” to the Jewish community.
But a Cotton On spokeswoman confirmed to B&T that Israel was not, in fact, excluded from the map, but rather due to scaling reasons was replaced with a key, along with a select number of other countries. The map legend that outlined this representation was also confirmed to be included on the globe.
In response to claims that Israel has ‘replaced’ Palestine, Cotton On said this is “incorrect” and reiterated that both countries were represented on the original globe and will remain on the new globes.
The product has been removed from sale in all 170 Typo stores globally and online.
“After receiving customer feedback regarding the representation of countries on our Typo world globe, the decision was made to halt production and immediately remove the product from sale,” a Cotton On spokesperson said in a statement sent to B&T.
“We’ve confirmed that we will not be reproducing the globes until our supplier finds artwork that represents all countries on the map and therefore eliminate the need for a key,” the spokeswoman said.
“As previously indicated, Typo regrets any offence caused by the product and we reiterate that the brand has no political agenda.”
