Adidas faces boycott over amputee campaign featuring Israeli soldier

Sportswear giant Adidas is facing criticism after a former Israeli soldier appeared in a local campaign promoting its single-shoe service for amputees.

Shalev Biton lost his leg after being wounded during Israel’s 11-day military offensive on Gaza in 2021.

Stephanie Westbrook, a sport boycotts campaigns coordinator for PACBI, a founding member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said the campaign is “an absolute affront to the Palestinians”, noting that “Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world”.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 5,000 traumatic limb amputations have taken place in Gaza since October 2023, when Israel began its genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

At least 1,370 physicians left Israel between 2023-2025, study finds

A study by the Tel Aviv University has found that at least 1,370 Israeli doctors left the country for at least 12 months between 2023 and 2025, according to Israeli media.

The number is nearly double the 705 physicians who relocated abroad between 2013 and 2015, The Times of Israel reported.

The study classifies doctors as having left if they spent more than 270 days abroad during their first year away and did not subsequently remain in Israel for more than three consecutive months.

Itay Ater, one of the study’s authors, told the Haaretz outlet that economists have long warned of the departure of highly skilled workers as a result of the government’s policies.

“It began in the context of the judicial overhaul and has only worsened since Hamas’s October 7 attack, the war and the disparities between those serving and those not serving [in the military],” he was quoted as saying. “We economists warned that citizens who can leave would do so.”

The study also examined emigration rates among doctors over the age of 45, who have typically completed specialist training and play a central role in training younger physicians. It found that one in five doctors who left Israel during the three-year period was over 45, a trend it described as worrying.

Israel threatens ‘full-scale war’ against Palestinian Authority in West Bank

The Palestinian Authority will be attacked if Israeli forces or settlements are targeted in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister has warned.

The threat from Israel Katz came after a stabbing attack in the northern West Bank with the Israeli military saying it shot and killed the Palestinian assailant.

“If … the Palestinian Authority’s security mechanisms and related bodies initiate – or we know with certainty that they are about to initiate – a terror attack in the style of October 7 against forces and Jewish settlements – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the [army] to prepare for the opening of a full-scale war,” Katz said in a statement.

The campaign would target the “senior leadership and mechanisms” of the Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as well as “all terror infrastructure” in the territory, Katz said.

It would include “targeted killings of senior figures” and the “evacuation of residents from the cities and villages from which terror activity is carried out”, with a permanent Israeli military presence embedded in those areas, he added.

"Full scale war"? How?

There is no Palestinian army, navy, air force. Only armed illegally transferred foreign colonists and usually unarmed occupied and terrorized people

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International law recognizes the right of peoples under colonial domination or foreign occupation to engage in a struggle for self-determination. This is noted in various United Nations General Assembly resolutions (such as Resolution 3103).

Under Article 51(3) of Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions:

• Colonists lose their immunity from attack "unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities."
• If an individual colonist engages in armed violence, carries out coordinated attacks against the occupied population, or acts as an active component of the occupying military forces (such as integrated state-armed civilian security squads), they lose their civilian immunity for the duration of that participation and become legitimate military targets.

Erdogan blames Israel for Middle East war

Erdogan blamed Israel for the current Middle East war and its wider consequences.

“The bill for the war that began with Israel’s schemes and provocations is being paid not only by the Iranian people, not only by our brotherly Gulf countries, but by everyone, whether involved or not,” he said.

He also accused Israel of undermining June’s framework agreement for ending the war.

“Once again, it is Israel’s lies and sabotage that have rendered ineffective the Islamabad accord, which brought relief to our entire region,” Erdogan said.

“The storm of crises in our region will not subside until this radical mindset, which sees even the slightest possibility of peace as a threat, changes,” he added.

Despite regional tensions, Erdogan said Turkey will maintain its economic course.

“Although we are making some adjustments to our targets, we continue to keep the Turkish economy on the path of development and growth,” he said.

“We will continue taking steps that will increase the welfare of our nation and provide permanent solutions to the structural problems of our economy,” Erdogan said.

“We will do whatever is necessary to make the Turkish economy stronger, more competitive, and more resilient in every area,” he added.

If we were to put politics aside, yes Netanyahu started it all, not on February 28th but on June 13, 2025. Three days later that month, he called on the US for help in the assassination of Khamenei while knowing that Hezbollah will respond.

From the days after his call, the Israeli Mossad and the CIA were preparing the assassination until December 17, 2025, when Netanyahu went to Washington to present Trump attack plans. Netanyahu vowed to reporters that he will attack Iran in 2026 again.

This visit was a message to us that the preparations, including months long observing the movement of the Iranian Supreme Leader, were completed.

From January 13th until February 10th, Trump was mass deploying war planes to the Middle East, and redeploying warplanes from Europe to the Middle East.

When Trump posted on his platform "Help is on its way," his followers were believing that the message was a response to the protest crackdown in Iran.

Turkey's Erdogan accuses Israel of undermining regional peace efforts with ‘lies and sabotage’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of undermining efforts to end the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“Israel’s war, which began with its plots and provocations, is being paid for not only by the Iranian people and our brotherly Gulf countries, but by everyone involved or uninvolved,” he said, according to a statement published by his office on X.

“It is also Israel’s lies and sabotage that have undermined the Islamabad agreement, which had allowed our entire region to breathe a sigh of relief,” Erdogan was quoted as saying.

He said crises in the region would not subside because of Israel’s “radical mindset”, “which perceives even the slightest possibility of peace as a threat to itself”.

Israeli minister calls for UK envoy’s expulsion over expected trade restrictions on illegal West Bank settlement goods

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the British ambassador must be expelled “tonight”, accusing the government of the United Kingdom “anti-Semitic”.

“The British Mandate in the Land of Israel is over,” he said in Hebrew on X.

The comments are a response to UK’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announcement for a “reset” of the relationship between the two countries. He is expected to announce trade restrictions on goods coming from illegal Israeli settlements this week.

Adidas apologises after backlash over featuring ex-Israeli soldier in campaign

Sportswear giant Adidas has apologized after facing online criticism and boycott calls for featuring a former Israeli soldier in a local campaign promoting the company’s single-shoe service for amputees and people with limb differences.

The Israeli soldier featured in the campaign, Shalev Biton, lost his left leg after being wounded during the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict.

Adidas Arabia, a regional branch of the German sportswear company, issued the apology on its Instagram account.

“We recognize that an image used in a recent local activation has raised concerns and strong reactions,” Adidas Arabia said in a statement.

“It was never our intent to cause offense, and we apologize to anyone affected,” it said. “We acknowledge the concerns that have been raised and are taking the feedback seriously.”