Stocks of the new Palestine poppy have sold out despite – or more likely because of – a huge backlash among right-wing media.
Media attacks on the ‘poppy’ – a badge shaped like the flower but in the colours of the Palestinian flag – appear to have driven massive demand. The poppy was devised by British medic Dr Abdul Qader Ismail in memory of the hundreds of thousands murdered and maimed in Israel’s genocide. Sales raise funds for Palestinian causes and help raise awareness of the Palestinian people’s decades of suffering under occupation, apartheid and war crimes.
Hissy-fit drives demand
Ismail said that there had been little awareness of the poppy’s availability until the right-wing press and broadcasters threw a hissy-fit over it – at which point, sales shot “through the roof”.
The so-called ‘Combat Antisemitism’ site and others shrieked that the poppy “politicises” Remembrance Day. How awful to treat war and the deaths of innocents as a political matter. The very idea.
The UK Telegraph, whose owner requires employees to support Israel, fumed at the fact that Ismail has allegedly described the genocidal colony as a ‘cancer’. It quoted Israel front-group the CAA ranting that the poppy is “sickening” and threatening to go after Ismail’s medical licence. For good measure, it cited Israel-fanatic ‘thuggish‘ peer Ian Austin, who described the poppy as “absolutely disgusting” and demanded that the trainee paediatrician be forbidden to treat children.
There there now, never mind. Always the victim, eh. If the poppy comes back into stock, heaven forbid that anyone should send one to any rabid peers as a thank-you gift for raising money for Israel’s victims.