DistantNews
Support us
🇶🇦 Qatar /Elections & Politics

Adidas faces boycott calls over campaign featuring former Israeli soldier

From Al Jazeera · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Adidas is facing criticism and boycott calls over an advertisement featuring former Israeli soldier Shalev Biton in the company’s single-shoe service for amputees.
  • Activists say the campaign is offensive to Palestinians who lost relatives or limbs in Israeli attacks on Gaza.
  • The article cites World Health Organization estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 people in Gaza had undergone amputations by early October 2025, while aid restrictions have left conditions dire.

Adidas is facing boycott calls over an advertisement that shows former Israeli soldier Shalev Biton trying on a shoe at a store in Israel before running outdoors. The campaign promotes the company’s single-shoe service for amputees.

Biton lost his leg after he was wounded during the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, when the Israeli army carried out an 11-day assault on the besieged enclave. For Palestinian activists, that detail makes the campaign especially provocative as Gaza’s amputees continue to face severe hardship.

“This isn’t Adidas being tone-deaf or insensitive; it is an absolute affront to the Palestinians who have lost their loved ones, killed by Israel, and who have lost their limbs [to Israeli attacks],” Stephanie Westbrook, a sports boycott campaigns coordinator for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, told Al Jazeera. PACBI is a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

This isn’t Adidas being tone-deaf or insensitive; it is an absolute affront to the Palestinians who have lost their loved ones, killed by Israel, and who have lost their limbs [to Israeli attacks].

· Stephanie WestbrookThe PACBI sports boycott campaigns coordinator criticized Adidas’s use of a former Israeli soldier in the advertisement.

Westbrook said the campaign could “normalise Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and allow it to continue to commit them with impunity”. She described Biton’s identity in the advertisement as centered on his military service and linked the campaign to Israel’s occupation and treatment of Palestinians.

The World Health Organization estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 people in Gaza had undergone amputations by early October 2025, when Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement. About 42,000 Palestinians had sustained life-changing injuries during the two-year conflict, the article says. Nearly a year after the ceasefire, conditions remain dire because of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. The article also says more than 1,000 Palestinian athletes have been killed during the conflict.

normalise Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and allow it to continue to commit them with impunity

· Stephanie WestbrookWestbrook warned about the effect she believes campaigns like the Adidas advertisement could have.
About this summary

Originally published by Al Jazeera. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog