Author: BDS National Committee (BNC)
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) – the broadest Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement – officially supports the grassroots, organic campaign to boycott ZARA. We call on people of conscience around the world to boycott ZARA, the flagship brand of Spanish multinational Inditex, for its deep and growing complicity in Israel’s settler-colonial, apartheid and genocidal regime.
In early 2025, amid Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza, ZARA opened its largest Israeli store to date – a 4,500 m² flagship in the Big Fashion Glilot complex near Tel Aviv. This expansion deepens ZARA’s economic ties with Israel, where the brand already operates dozens of stores. All this comes at a time when Israel’s genocidal regime is carrying out mass murder, forced displacement and the destruction of Palestinian cultural life with complete impunity. Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed over 80,000 Palestinians to date (an underestimation), and has obliterated the Gaza Strip’s healthcare and education systems, destroying its social, cultural and economic fabric, deliberately imposing living conditions on Gaza designed to physically destroy Palestinians.
ZARA’s complicity with the oppressive Israeli regime runs even deeper. In October 2022, Joey Schwebel, president of Trimera Brands – ZARA’s Israeli franchise partner – hosted a campaign event at his home for far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir, who has openly called for the expulsion of Palestinians, the shooting of civilians and the denial of humanitarian aid to Gaza, was involved in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) proceedings that found that Israel was likely committing genocide. Following the event, Ben-Gvir praised ZARA, tweeting: „ZARA, beautiful clothes, beautiful Israelis.”
In June 2021, then-ZARA Woman's head designer, Vanessa Perilman, launched a racist tirade against Palestinians on Instagram in messages sent to Palestinian model Qaher Harhash. ZARA responded with a weak statement distancing itself from the comments, but took no substantive action or held anyone accountable.
In December 2023, ZARA released an offensive ad campaign titled „The Jacket,” which depicted mannequins wrapped in white sheets next to crumbling statues—an image eerily reminiscent of the shrouded Palestinian bodies seen daily during Israel’s live-streamed genocide in Gaza. Following international outrage, ZARA removed the ad and issued a hollow „apology” stating that it „regretted the misunderstanding,” while doing nothing to address its deep business ties to Israel’s apartheid regime.
ZARA and Inditex have been silent on Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s cultural sector and its 4,000-year-old cultural heritage. They have said nothing about the killing of Palestinian fashion and textile industry figures, including the killing of renowned designer Walaa al-Afranji, founder of Fashion Room by Walaa, who was killed along with her husband by Israeli forces in the Nuseirat refugee camp in December 2024. At the same time, ZARA has chosen Israeli model Sun Mizrahi as the face of its 2024 global campaign, „whitewashing” Israel’s crimes and glorifying its image during the genocide. Commenting on the campaign, Mizrahi’s spokesperson stated: „[Mizrahi] is happy to be the face of Israel that is so identified with our country around the world, especially in times like these.”
Inditex’s complicity in human rights abuses extends beyond Palestine. The company has been accused of inhumane working conditions in Brazil and of labor rights abuses in Myanmar, which forced the company to withdraw from the country after a public pressure campaign. These cases fit into a broader pattern of disregard for fundamental rights in Inditex’s global supply chains.
As Dr. Irene Pietropaoli’s legal analysis (for SOMO and Al-Haq) has highlighted, the world’s corporate leaders could be held legally responsible for their complicity in Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. The report warns: „Companies risk complicity in the Israeli government’s abuses even if they simply do business in the country and contribute to the wider economy, such as paying taxes to a government that commits genocide. Tacit complicity is evident when a company does not directly contribute to or benefit from the genocide, but is aware of it and does not distance itself from it.” ZARA and Inditex executives should beware: operating and partnering in apartheid Israel could not only cost them their business, but also have legal consequences.
Inditex owns ZARA, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Stradivarius and ZARA Home. Although all operate in apartheid Israel, ZARA is Inditex's most prominent and strategically marketed brand, and is therefore a primary target of the BDS strategic boycott campaign.
The BDS movement calls on workers, artists, students, unions, human rights activists and ethical consumers around the world to boycott ZARA and pressure Inditex to end its complicity in Israel's crimes and withdraw its operations from apartheid Israel.
ZARA sided with genocide. Boycott ZARA until it ends its criminal complicity.
