Adidas Faces Global Boycott Calls Over Advertising Campaign Featuring Former Israeli Soldier

Sportswear giant Adidas is facing severe criticism and widespread calls for a boycott after featuring a former Israeli army soldier in an advertising campaign for its single-shoe service designed for amputees.

The advertisement promotes an in-store service and features former Israeli soldier Shalev Biton trying on a shoe at a store in Israel before running outdoors. The campaign was condemned as “an affront to Palestinians” by a boycott campaigns coordinator.

Biton lost his leg after being wounded during the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, an 11-day assault during which the Israeli army repeatedly attacked the besieged enclave. Human rights campaigners and pro-Palestine activists noted that the immediate online boycott campaign directed at the German athletic apparel and footwear company should not come as a surprise.

“This isn’t 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,” said Stephanie Westbrook, a sports boycott campaigns coordinator for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) – a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement – in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Westbrook emphasized the dangers of such campaigns, stating they serve to “normalise Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and allow it to continue to commit them with impunity.” She added, “Here we have an Adidas campaign featuring an Israeli soldier, whose whole identity is centred around his being a soldier, who lost his leg while participating in one of the repeated Israeli assaults on Gaza, serving in an army of a state that is currently committing genocide, has carried out an illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territory, and that has been imposing a decades-long apartheid rule over Palestinians.”

According to World Health Organization estimates, between 5,000 and 6,000 people in Gaza underwent amputations by early October 2025, when a “ceasefire” agreement was signed between Israel and Hamas. These individuals are among 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza who sustained life-changing injuries during the two-year conflict.

Nearly a year following the ceasefire, conditions remain dire as a result of Israel blocking humanitarian aid from entering the enclave. While the advertisement depicts the soldier returning to the streets to exercise and run, more than one thousand Palestinian athletes have been killed during Israel’s war on Gaza. Additionally, hundreds of aspiring footballers have lost their limbs and formed amputee football teams, finding solace in sport amid their pain and trying to reclaim fragments of their former lives.

High-profile figures joined the backlash, including Spanish actor and vocal pro-Palestine activist Javier Bardem, who shared images and videos supporting the boycott campaign across his social media accounts. Other prominent voices calling for a boycott of Adidas products included US-Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto, and numerous social media users.

Activist Westbrook drew attention to the ongoing blockade on Gaza, which blocks medicines and prosthetics from entering the territory following the destruction of local medical facilities. Citing the International Rescue Committee, she noted that children account for a quarter of all amputations in Gaza over the past two years, making the region the area with the highest number of child amputees per capita globally. Westbrook asserted that Israel has “decimated the health sector,” resulting in a severe shortage of care and rehabilitation services, while its “medieval siege” prevents prosthetics from entering Gaza.

Data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that since the Israeli war on Gaza began in October 2023, 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-altering injuries, with 11,000 of those affected being children.