Skip to footer

Wal-Mart's Israeli soldier and 'Sheik Fagin' costumes attract criticism

The nation's largest retailer hears about the insensitive nature of two Halloween costume outfits.

|
Carlos Barria/REUTERS/File
Customers are seen at a Wal-Mart store in Miami, Florida in this 2010 file photo.
  • By Michael D. Regan Staff

A Halloween costume that would allow kids to dress up as Israeli soldiers this Halloween, sold by Walmart and Amazon, is stirring indignation among consumers.

Critics say the sale is a sign the retailers have become insensitive to the longstanding conflict between Palestinians and Israelis after a month that has seen a rise in violence between the two sides.

The BBC reports that more than 40 Palestinians and nine Israelis have been killed in October through renewed episodes of violence.

The costume depicting an Israeli Defense Forces soldier includes a green uniform with Hebrew etched on the front, a red beret and a belt, all sold together for $27.44, according to a description on Walmart’s website. A toy gun can be purchased separately, USA Today reported.

Consumers took to social media and the retailer's comment section to express their dissatisfaction over the children’s costume, with one commenter calling it “utterly insensitive and immoral.”

Walmart also saw its Facebook page lit up with people upset over the outfit. "Israeli soldier as a Halloween costume great idea. Why not an ISIS costume too? Birds of a feather...," one man posted. 

Walmart is no stranger to criticism for the sale of certain costumes consumers deemed insensitive. The BBC reports the Walmart-owned Tesco and Asda in the United Kingdom pulled an costumes called "mental patient" and "psycho ward" in 2013 .

Animal-welfare activists lodged complaints against Walmart on another get-up representing Cecil the Lion, who was killed by a Michigan dentist on a hunting expedition.

Another costume sold by Walmart, called “Sheik Fagin,” offers an abnormally elongated prosthetic nose described as “perfect for an Arab Sheik” and advertised on a model wearing a keffiyeh – a headdress popular in parts of the Middle East.

However, the BBC described the costume as also receiving criticism over its name, Fagin, as the “stereotypical greedy Jew in Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.”

Walmart has not yet responded to the social media backlash. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Wal-Mart's Israeli soldier and 'Sheik Fagin' costumes attract criticism
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1027/Wal-Mart-s-Israeli-soldier-and-Sheik-Fagin-costumes-attract-criticism
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe