B’nai Brith Canada, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and Liberation75 unite in a campaign to prevent the multinational e-commerce company from continuing the sale of “hateful and appalling items” on its website.
By JNS.org
Canadian Jewish groups dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the Holocaust issued a joint statement calling on Amazon to stop the sale of “hateful and appalling items” on its website.
The statement comes after B’nai Brith Canada discovered last month that the multinational e-commerce company was facilitating the sale of hateful material, despite its own guidelines of not tolerating such items.
“[Amazon] has been facilitating the sales of deeply offensive items such as Hitler and Nazi images, Holocaust-themed prints and Jewish ritual items presented as beachwear,” said B’nai Brith Canada in the statement. “There are even wall stickers, canvas prints and posters featuring images of emaciated concentration-camp victims and the Auschwitz death camp—items that unpardonably commercialize deplorable acts of genocide and hate.”
B’nai Brith Canada went on to say that Amazon has not responded to appeals from concerned Canadians who have written to the company.
“Amazon’s transgressions and continued silence are serious and warrant a sustained intervention by a united Jewish community,” said CEO of B’nai Brith Canada Michael Mostyn. “We are bringing further attention to this ongoing issue and asking that Amazon Canada remove the problematic content by no later than Jan. 27, 2023—International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
This view was shared by President and CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Michael Levitt.
“We are hopeful that the unified approach with Amazon will succeed,” said Levitt. “Amazon is one of the largest and most successful online retailers in our country. There is no excuse for this corporation to profit off the sale of revolting items profoundly offensive to the Jewish community and people of good conscience.”
Liberation75, an Ontario-based global gathering of Holocaust survivors, descendants and educators, emphasized the need for the items in question to be removed by Amazon as quickly as possible.
“It is unacceptable that Amazon is facilitating the sales of such harmful and despicable items,” said founder of Liberation75 Marilyn Sinclair. “We must be relentless in working together and ensuring that these items are removed, and quickly. They are intolerable.”
The statement concluded by saying that in the leadup to Jan. 27, organizations and individuals concerned with combating Holocaust trivialization are called upon to use the hashtag #NeverAgainAmazon to raise awareness online.
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