Spanish actor Javier Bardem shared several posts on Instagram criticising the decision, including one which accused Adidas of \u201chelping child killers get back on their feet\u201d.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Westbrook, said to be a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, told Al Jazeera: \u201cThis isn\u2019t Adidas being tone-deaf or insensitive; it is an absolute affront to the Palestinians who have lost their loved ones, killed by Israel, and who have lost their limbs [to Israeli attacks].\u201d<\/p>\n
She claimed the campaign would \u201cnormalise Israel\u2019s crimes against Palestinians and allow it to continue to commit them with impunity\u201d.<\/p>\n
In response, Adidas appeared to distance itself from its Israeli branch.<\/p>\n
The company said: \u201cWe recognise that an image used in a recent local activation by the local team has raised concerns and strong reactions. It was never our intent to cause offence and we apologise for anyone affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adidas went on to stress its \u2018Single Shoe\u2019 in-store service was a campaign aimed at promoting inclusion and had been initially introduced in Europe.<\/p>\n
Biton\u00a0lost his leg in 2021 after an anti-tank rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip and struck the military vehicle he was in on the Israeli side of the border. A fellow soldier, Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, was killed in the attack, while Biton\u2019s left leg had to be amputated. After rehabilitation, he now runs with a prosthetic limb.<\/p>\n
On August 26, Biton announced his collaboration with Adidas on Instagram, explaining that since returning to running, he had been forced to purchase full pairs of running shoes despite needing only one shoe.<\/p>\n
He described the launch of the Single Shoe service in Israel as a dream come true, saying it reflected a broader shift towards a world that adapts to the needs of people with disabilities rather than expecting them to adapt to existing systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish actor Javier Bardem shared several posts on Instagram criticising the decision, including one which accused Adidas of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[76507,423,37,549,1381],"class_list":["post-282002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-adidas","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-veterans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117230072396454034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}