On 24 October, Palestinians called for the boycott of the retail clothing chain Zara after its Israeli franchise holder hosted far-right Knesset member (MK) Itamar Ben Gvir for a campaign event. 

Canadian-Israeli dual national Joey Schwebel, chairman of Israel’s Zara line, hosted the anti-Palestinian MK for a campaign event a week before the upcoming elections on 1 November.

Ben Gvir, the head of the far-right nationalist party Otzma Yehudit, translated as Jewish Power, will be running Tel Aviv’s legislative elections.

Israeli news channel 12 exposed the meeting on 20 October, after which Palestinians within the occupied territories launched online campaigns urging for the boycott of Zara products.

Videos surfaced on social media, showing Palestinian burning clothes from the retail store, calling on “fellow Palestinians to boycott this racist company.”

Ben Gvir, was seen in a video on the evening of 13 October, wielding a pistol in the occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and urging settlers and police to shoot at Palestinians who throw stones at the occupation forces.

Later trying to justify his behavior via Twitter, Ben Gvir said: “The politicians are tying the hands of our cops … It cannot be that Arabs throw stones next to cops and the cops don’t respond with fire.”

Ben Gvir is also known for praising extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994.

On 23 October, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu remarked that Ben Gvir could be a minister of his cabinet on the condition that the former premier forms a government following the elections, despite declaring the far-right MK as “unfit” for a ministerial designation.

Ben Gvir’s Religious Zionism party currently stands at 14 seats in the elections, while the National Camp party of Defense Minister Benny Gantz is at a mere 12 seats.