Yet another Israel and Palestine Post or: How suffering of People turned into a money making machine for others

The war in Israel and Palestine is on of the most talked wars ever. There is barely anyone who has not yet heard about it. The suffering of people, the deaths and the trauma, there is so much terrible stuff that has happend and is still happening. But do people actually care about it, or has this whole war turned into a money grabbing ideology on all sides, that wouldn't want the war to end? Let's talk about it:

I open my etsy app, type in the search bar: Judaism, or Israel and instead of finding cute artsy things or charms or anything, I get flooded with "Anti Zionist" stuff and Palestine flags. This doesn't trigger me, because of the flag, but because if I want to get something Jewish, this is nothing political. But I click on the Watermelon stickers anyways. "Tikkun Olam", "Free Palestine", "Zionism is Nazi-ism", and so on. I sigh, go back and see a yellow ribbon: "Safe the hostages", you can get it as a pin, a charm, a necklace and so on. Cute! I love the fact that we still care about the hostages. Now: where is the issue with both of these stories? The fact that I found more and more stores who sold stuff to "Show solidarity" that did not actually put any of their sales to charity. "Why is this a problem?" One might ask. Because this means peoples trauma and pain is being exploited by random people online to make money off of it. Don't get me wrong, getting merchandinse to show solidarity can be a good and cute way to protest on a daily, but if you buy something and 0% of the sales are actually being used to help the cause, it's bs. I also got my yellow ribbon pin and cappy, but I wanted to make sure that I bought it off of a source, that actually helps somebody, so I got it from the "Bring Them Home Now"-Store. This way, I was sure that the people who suffered from October 7th had the best chances to get financial aid from my purchase. No, this does not mean you should throw away merchandise, that was bought off of a weird source (well, maybe yes, but that is you decision to make), but just be more careful next time maybe. Now this is just one story, but there is more. Online searching war propaganda sales will show you how since the first world war art and other forms of communication were used to change world views, for people to be more willing to paricipate in a war (see also: Selling the War | How WWI Changed America ), so this is nothing new. The issue is, that people think it is a thing of the past. Many also believe they would never fall for propaganda, but this is a topic for another time. I did some more searching and found that in some flag stores the Israeli flag is a "best seller". This was a little weird to me at first, since there are not many people who actually love Israel, who are not jewish. I have to make the assumption that people did in fact not buy the flag, because the love Israel, but to use it to distroy or burn it, as many do at "rallys" to show their "protest".

Screenshot taken from Best Selling International Flags - 1-800 Flags on the 3rd July 2025

After some more digging (aka I clicked another link), I also found the Palestine counter part:

Screenshot taken from Best Selling Products – Flags Ireland Prospect Design on the 3rd July 2025

Now these are still just examples, of course, and in this care it is "just" flags. But the fact that in 2 Shops the flags are called "Best Sellers" shows: people are buying this to make a statement. Just like with Pins, Keffiyeh scarfs, yellow ribbons and so on. And as soon as people buy something, other people will do everything they can to make money off of it for themselves. After staring at a "Jews for a free Palestine" sticker for a full minute and scanning if the person who is selling this on etsy is jewish, or if they would at least put some of the sales for charity I feel like I wanna punch something. This is not helping anyone in Palestine. This is an Artist, who btw doesn't seem to be very jewish if at all (yes, I stalked them, sue me), who sells 1 design to "Free Palestine", but they don't care to share a link to a charity project or send some money from their sales (yes, again, I stalked them). But hey, at least good ol' Elizabeth wrote in the comments that "She wears the pin with pride to work, to show solidarity". Great Elizabeth! I am sure the people in Palestine are happy to know you spent 16 Euro for a pin, that will not change SHIT FOR THEM! Let me be clear: War is NOT and NEVER WILL BE fashionable! Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE who makes money off of the backs of Palestinien people and Israeli people are disgusting. War is not a trend. Dead people, hostages, wounded and traumatized people are not just a fashion statement for people in the west to wear and consume.

If you want to actually help: Promote peace, look for charity projects, or get stuff from shops that spent some of their earned money on charity. But this: Buying flags, like crazy, in an "act of solidarity", getting a pin by a person who cosplays as a Jew but doesn't donate any money, or also buying yellow ribbon stuff from people who don't give some of their earnings from these things to the hostages families isnothing but selfish consumerism. People care more to participate on a trend and be "on the right side of history" then to actually help,

Repeat after me: Israelis and Palestiniens deserve to live in peace. Their Hurt is not my fashion. I will not let people exploit their pain for my profit or fashion.