Kmart pulls product from shelves after shocking Hamas blunder

Kmart has been forced to pull a Christmas product from its shelves after an embarrassing blunder.

Kmart has pulled the product from its shelves.

Kmart has been forced to pull one of its Christmas products from shelves after uproar from the Jewish community.

The Australian Jewish Association took issue with the store’s $4 Christmas “ham bag”, used to store ham, because it was emblazoned with the caption “Merry Ham-Mas”.

Hamas is the terrorist organisation that invaded Israel on October 7, killing 1400 people and taking 240 hostages, sparking a bloody war which has resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 Palestinians.

Taking to X on Wednesday the Australian Jewish Association said: “Check out the special Christmas bag currently available via Kmart online. Yes, it’s real!!”

Kmart has pulled the product from its shelves.

“Although this is potentially funny (the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes) it’s really not a good look.”

“We suspect some product manager may cause the company some embarrassment. So we’ve politely written to Wesfarmers corporate suggesting the product be pulled.”

An hour later they followed up with another tweet confirming that senior management had contacted the association to say the bag had been removed.

Speaking with The West Australian president of the Australian Jewish Association Dr David Adler acknowledged that the reference to Hamas was not intentional.

But he doubled down on the decision to ask the store to remove the item.

“It’s not normal times, there are people that will distort things and will harass the Jewish community,” Dr Adler said.

K-MART STUFF-UP!

Check out the special Christmas bag currently available via K-Mart online. Yes, it's real!!

Although this is potentially funny (the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes) it's really not a good look.

We suspect some product manager may cause the… pic.twitter.com/vGswVvvNG6

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) November 8, 2023

“Of course, there are bigger issues to be addressed, dealing with the actual terrorism is important, but one of the other things we are dealing with is propaganda.

“I want to give credit to Kmart management as they acted very quickly.”

A Wesfarmers spokesperson confirmed the Christmas bag had been removed stating the store “got it wrong”.

“We got it wrong on this occasion, and we apologise unreservedly,” the spokesperson said.

“When designing this product we clearly didn’t think through all the implications and the product has been removed from sale.”

Originally published as Kmart pulls product from shelves after shocking Hamas blunder