Kmart stores in Australia have yanked a Christmas-themed bag for hams emblazoned with “Merry Ham-Mas” — after it sparked outrage for resembling the terror group Hamas.
The festive drawstring bag, which features holiday decorations and is intended to store a ham in the fridge, first drew ire from the Australian Jewish Association.
“K-MART STUFF-UP! Check out the special Christmas bag currently available via Kmart online. Yes, it’s real!!” the group wrote on X, where it posted an image of the $4 terror-evoking tote.
“Although this is potentially funny (the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes) it’s really not a good look. We suspect some product manager may cause the company some embarrassment,” it said.
“So we’ve politely written to Wesfarmers corporate suggesting the product be pulled,” the AJA added.
Kmart later apologized for the cringeworthy gaffe.
“We got it wrong on this occasion, and we apologize unreservedly,” a company rep told Politico Thursday.
“When designing this product we clearly didn’t think through all the implications and the product has been removed from sale,” the spokesperson added.
The Jewish rights’ group later posted an update, saying it had been contacted by “senior management” from Kmart announcing that the bag was “being pulled out from the website and all stores.”
In an interview with The West Australian, AJA president David Adler praised Kmart for yanking the product.
“It’s not normal times, there are people that will distort things and will harass the Jewish community,” he told the outlet.
“Of course, there are bigger issues to be addressed, dealing with the actual terrorism is important, but one of the other things we are dealing with is propaganda,”? Adler said.
“I want to give credit to Kmart management as they acted very quickly,” he added.
Christmas ham is a staple of holiday traditions in Australia, where it is often served cold.
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