Shein for Palestine, cuts ties with Israeli influencers

As the ongoing Israeli colonisation of Gaza continues to intensify, it appears that popular Chinese e-commerce platform Shein has taken some solid steps to show solidarity with Palestine.

It all started when the site faced criticism from Israeli customers for selling Palestinian flags, while a search for the Israel flag led to a broken link.

This prompted Israeli consumers to initiate a widespread call to boycott the platform.

“By supporting a terrorist organisation like Hamas that attacks my country Israel, Shein has lost our orders,” wrote a user on Facebook.

Following the outcry, the e-commerce platform removed Palestinian flags from their inventory. However, it was later revealed that Shein had cut ties with Israeli influencers and ended partnerships.

Apparently Israeli influencers received a mass email which stated: “Thank you for your support and love for Shein. Due to adjustments, the campaign’s publication date has been postponed. Please refrain from posting about Shein. We will provide an update with more details and anew publication date soon.”

In addition to that, all free deliveries to Israel have been cancelled. Social media postings have now surfaced that the products and parcels received by Israelis from Shein arrived wrapped in the colours of the Palestinian flag.

Based on previous media reports, Shein was the most popular e-commerce platform in Israel, after Amazon.

Since Oct 7, conversations about the intersection of fashion, politics and corporate responsibility have escalated.

Many major fashion brands have released statements to reflect their support towards Israel while others released a rather neutral stance, condemning violence from what they call the “Israel-Hamas conflict”.

Most recently, Dior came under fire for allegedly replacing Palesinian-American model Bella Hadid with an Israeli model for its holiday campaign.

Earlier, Marks & Spencer was also on the receiving end of criticism after posting a picture from its Christmas advert, showing red and green paper hats in a burning fireplace.

Many had compared the colours of the paper hats to a Palestinian flag, questioning if the retailer was making a political statement. However, the retailer issued an apology and had deleted the post.