Saturday, September 16, 2006
Another Reason to Boycott American Apparel
So, I started my browser and it opened up to Adbusters where the article "Clamor Mag vs American Apparel" finally caught my eye. It seems Clamor's exposé (the title of the three-article spread and accompanying parody ads is "American Apparel Exposed") of AA's anti-union practices, sexploitation advertising, workplace sexual harassment, and faux progressive posturing struck a nerve and AA objected with talk of legal action.
A back-and-forth between Clamor and AA reps appears on the Clamor blog. The case against AA seems pretty sound and the company's complaints seem pretty groundless.
In any case, there's another reason to boycott AA and one that didn't make it into Clamor: CEO and owner Dov Charney is a Zionist. AA has opened a Tel Aviv store this year in violation of the international boycott and divestment campaign against apartheid Israel and apparently plans to open more (see photo).
Right: American Apparel's Dan Abenaim scouting for new locations in Jerusalem (caption and uncredited photo from Jewlicious.com). Addendum: According to the Jerusalem-based Jewlicious blogger, ck: "The image in question is of American Apparel Employee Dan Abenaim flanked by two American Apparel fans. They were both female members of the IDF serving in a combat unit. One was from Toronto and the other was from San Francisco. Abenaim was in Jerusalem scouting locations for another store."
A Times of London article* that appears on AA's web site states:
According to a post on Jewlicious.com, after a 12-year-old Arab Israeli boy bested hundreds of Israeli Jewish kids last year to win a quiz focused on the history of Zionism, AA's CEO stepped in:
Clamor's "American Apparel Exposed" Articles
Note
* James Collard. "Too sexy for his shirt; Profile." The Times (London, England). Feb. 12, 2005. p. 46. The article also appears on the AA web site here.
Update: "Zionist Apparel" Too Hot for American Apparel?
Last revised: 9/27/06
A back-and-forth between Clamor and AA reps appears on the Clamor blog. The case against AA seems pretty sound and the company's complaints seem pretty groundless.
In any case, there's another reason to boycott AA and one that didn't make it into Clamor: CEO and owner Dov Charney is a Zionist. AA has opened a Tel Aviv store this year in violation of the international boycott and divestment campaign against apartheid Israel and apparently plans to open more (see photo).
Right: American Apparel's Dan Abenaim scouting for new locations in Jerusalem (caption and uncredited photo from Jewlicious.com). Addendum: According to the Jerusalem-based Jewlicious blogger, ck: "The image in question is of American Apparel Employee Dan Abenaim flanked by two American Apparel fans. They were both female members of the IDF serving in a combat unit. One was from Toronto and the other was from San Francisco. Abenaim was in Jerusalem scouting locations for another store."A Times of London article* that appears on AA's web site states:
A sign outside his factory says a lot about the mix of influences at work in Charney. "This way to American Apparel," it announces. "The Sweatshop-Free T-shirt Kibbutz Owned and Operated by Dov Charney." Israel's kibbutz movement was the flowering of that Jewish socialist tradition that Charney's grandfather Hymie carried with him from Poland to Canada. But for all its virtues - and even Charney's apparent lack of interest in the trappings of wealth - American Apparel is hardly a workers' co-op, and Charney also enjoys likening himself to a Jewish "schmatta" - or rag-trade - businessman of the old school.Both Charney and the article's author seem oblivious or, more likely, indifferent to the Zionist terrorism against Palestinians that underwrote Israel and the "kibbutz movement." That "flowering of ... Jewish socialist tradition" was built on the blood and lands of Palestinians. Even today, Israeli kibbutzim do not allow Arabs to become full members.
According to a post on Jewlicious.com, after a 12-year-old Arab Israeli boy bested hundreds of Israeli Jewish kids last year to win a quiz focused on the history of Zionism, AA's CEO stepped in:
So I was on the phone talking to Dov Charney, President of American Apparel. He was telling me about how he was about to open a new American Apparel store in Tel Aviv. I then told him about Rami and suggested we get him a better prize, like an XBox. Charney was all "Screw that. Let's get a laptop. At least he can use that for school." So sure enough, we purchased a laptop for Rami as well as for his partner Gai Gutherz and this past Tuesday we invited Rami to meet our birthright israel trip at the offices of Ha'aretz.Quite the humanitarian, eh? The irony of giving Rami the laptop via a "birthright israel" trip is just so bitter. Any of Rami's non-Jewish relatives who were driven out by Zionist terrorists in 1948 have no "birthright" recognized by Israel to return to their homeland but a Jew from anywhere in the world can "return" all expenses paid.
Clamor's "American Apparel Exposed" Articles
- Who’s Your Daddy? Dov Charney serves up paternalism with a creepy smile at American Apparel HQ (click here)
- When the Sideshow Becomes the Main Attraction: A town-hall meeting about American Apparel (click here)
- F*cking Progressives: American Apparel wants you to bend over for its anti-sweatshop schtick (click here)
- All three articles with accompanying parody ads in PDF format (click here)
Note
* James Collard. "Too sexy for his shirt; Profile." The Times (London, England). Feb. 12, 2005. p. 46. The article also appears on the AA web site here.
Update: "Zionist Apparel" Too Hot for American Apparel?
Last revised: 9/27/06
Comments:
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Did you also know that Dov Charney's uncle is the world-famous architect Moshe Safdie who designed the new Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. The main role of this museum is to exagerate Jewish suffering in order to justify Palestinian oppression.
# posted by 
: Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:38:00 PM
: Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:38:00 PM
Hey there dissident-
looks like you got fucked over good. Not to turn a light issue (u being had by jewlicious) into a serious one (the conflict in the mideast) but, while you would never say it out loud, deep down inside you are an antisemite. And spare me the zionism isnt judaism bullshit. You are advocating the destruction of the jewish state. Trust me, if you were calling for the liquidation of France, Germany, Lebanon, Iran ect. i'd call you anti-french, anti-german ect.
Hope you have a successful day of hate-mongering, masturbating, and editing you pathetic blog.
All the best!!!
Adam
looks like you got fucked over good. Not to turn a light issue (u being had by jewlicious) into a serious one (the conflict in the mideast) but, while you would never say it out loud, deep down inside you are an antisemite. And spare me the zionism isnt judaism bullshit. You are advocating the destruction of the jewish state. Trust me, if you were calling for the liquidation of France, Germany, Lebanon, Iran ect. i'd call you anti-french, anti-german ect.
Hope you have a successful day of hate-mongering, masturbating, and editing you pathetic blog.
All the best!!!
Adam
# posted by : Monday, September 18, 2006 11:49:00 AM
: Monday, September 18, 2006 11:49:00 AM
If you really wanted to boycott Israel you would throw away your computers, cellphone, medicines etc. That means you have to shut down this website! What are waiting for.
By the way "Palestinians" don't exist. It's a fraud created by the Arabs to steal the Jewish homeland idiot!
By the way "Palestinians" don't exist. It's a fraud created by the Arabs to steal the Jewish homeland idiot!
# posted by : Monday, September 18, 2006 11:08:00 PM
: Monday, September 18, 2006 11:08:00 PM
So, wait there, Mr. Hitler: you're freaking out because Charney gave the kid a laptop? The kid volunteered to do a contest about Zionism. He won. The same way there was a Miss Israel who was a Palestinian a few years ago.
Listen, douchebag: I'll let you scream and yell all you want about the way the Jews treat the Arabs the day Egypt gives my family back the land and possessions they took in 1956. There are two sides to everything, though it's hard to see that when you're too busy painting swastikas on cemetaries.
Nazi racist pig.
Listen, douchebag: I'll let you scream and yell all you want about the way the Jews treat the Arabs the day Egypt gives my family back the land and possessions they took in 1956. There are two sides to everything, though it's hard to see that when you're too busy painting swastikas on cemetaries.
Nazi racist pig.
In response to the previous commenters: criticism of Israel and Zionism is not anti-semitism. It just is not. By definition. You can say whatever you want, and throw around words like "nazi" and racist" and "Hitler". But it doesn't make you right. It makes you brainwashed, that's all.
I know, it takes a lot of work playing up Israel as the poor, tiny, helpless victim. The victim who flaunts international law constantly while enjoying billions of dollars in supprt from the US and housing one of the largest, most advanced (nuclear-armed) militaries in the world.
I wonder if the same people who call the boycott of Israel racist were doing the same in the early 90's when there was an intenrational boycott of South Africa?
Oh wait, black South Africans were just a plot to steal land and resources from the rightful white owners. Sorry, I forget sometimes!
I know, it takes a lot of work playing up Israel as the poor, tiny, helpless victim. The victim who flaunts international law constantly while enjoying billions of dollars in supprt from the US and housing one of the largest, most advanced (nuclear-armed) militaries in the world.
I wonder if the same people who call the boycott of Israel racist were doing the same in the early 90's when there was an intenrational boycott of South Africa?
Oh wait, black South Africans were just a plot to steal land and resources from the rightful white owners. Sorry, I forget sometimes!
# posted by : Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:45:00 PM
: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:45:00 PM
I can honestly say that you are a racist, and some day when you have a chance to unlearn all the racism that you were indoctrinated with growing up in the west, you will come to see this truth.
Israel has the right to exist and your opposition Israel proves the point.
I will not refer to you by nasty names, rather it is pathetic that you think you are progressive when really you write like a racist.
Israel has the right to exist and your opposition Israel proves the point.
I will not refer to you by nasty names, rather it is pathetic that you think you are progressive when really you write like a racist.
"In response to the previous commenters: criticism of Israel and Zionism is not anti-semitism. It just is not."
You're right, mere criticism of Israel is in itself not anti-semitic. Lying about Israel and exaggerating non-existent "human rights" abuses is though. As is openly supporting her terrorist neighbours.
"I wonder if the same people who call the boycott of Israel racist were doing the same in the early 90's when there was an intenrational boycott of South Africa?"
And what a sterling job you did with South Africa. With HIV, unemployment and the crime rate through the roof. South Africa used to have a space program. Now everybody is equally poor and disenfranchised (well except from the corrupt ANC).
You're right, mere criticism of Israel is in itself not anti-semitic. Lying about Israel and exaggerating non-existent "human rights" abuses is though. As is openly supporting her terrorist neighbours.
"I wonder if the same people who call the boycott of Israel racist were doing the same in the early 90's when there was an intenrational boycott of South Africa?"
And what a sterling job you did with South Africa. With HIV, unemployment and the crime rate through the roof. South Africa used to have a space program. Now everybody is equally poor and disenfranchised (well except from the corrupt ANC).
# posted by : Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:41:00 PM
: Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:41:00 PM
"The main role of this museum is to exagerate Jewish suffering in order to justify Palestinian oppression."
The "Palestinians" were actively engaged in the Final Solution. A museum should be the least of their worries, they should be paying reparations to Israel along with their German comrades:
----------
Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified during his war crimes trial in 1946 that ... "The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz."
----------
That was the leader of the "Palestinians" during the British Mandate.
The "Palestinians" were actively engaged in the Final Solution. A museum should be the least of their worries, they should be paying reparations to Israel along with their German comrades:
----------
Adolf Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified during his war crimes trial in 1946 that ... "The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chambers of Auschwitz."
----------
That was the leader of the "Palestinians" during the British Mandate.
# posted by : Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:47:00 PM
: Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:47:00 PM
As a reader entirely removed from both sides of this issue, I must say that the criticism of the Holocaust memorial was really weak. The holocaust, however you look at it, was a TRAGEDY. However, the Palestinians did not cause it. They were not in uniforms, executing the horrid actions of Hitler. If this was a European wrong, I don't understand why people in the middleeast had to pay so dearly. If we, the West, were the saviors of the day, then why are we not compensating part of our land in charity? "Jewish land" is based on a biblical claim, and its the 21st century. The leaders of the world are no longer designated by Divine Command,but through voting. That claim is weak. The truth is that after the holocaust, when Jews from around the world had had enough of being pursued and flooded the then-Palestine, there WERE people living there. Pointing out this truth is not anti-semitic. Every time someone says something you don't like, it's not anti-semitic. When a Palestinian, their home just bulldozed, cried for a home, they are not being anti-semitic, or racist. The Palestinian strife is not over-sensationalised, just as the Holocaust is not. Bigotry is apparent when Zionists belittle the tragedy of systematic extermination of Palestinians, but still uphold the tragedy of the same sort of extermination of the Jews. They are both sad. Either you have a conscience and care about PEOPLE, or you do not. Saying that you care only about people when they are Jewish, my friends, is also racist. So far, in my research regarding this subject, all I have seen is extreme racism from Zionists. The only was they (you) bypass the accusation is by calling others "nazi" and "racist" before they could ever call you on it.
Please research the definition for "semite" and "racist" before you become so passionate. There really is two sides to this problem. Perhaps you are refusing to see the other side?
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Please research the definition for "semite" and "racist" before you become so passionate. There really is two sides to this problem. Perhaps you are refusing to see the other side?
# posted by : Monday, March 22, 2010 9:45:00 PM
: Monday, March 22, 2010 9:45:00 PM << Home
