Must Have: No Sweat Gear Made in Bethlehem

I wonder what shirts 'landed on the cutting room floor'. 

I really like to get some shirts saying "Darfur is for lovers" written in both Arabic and Chinese and made by forced labor in Darfur. Anyone know where I can get some? Perhaps the back would have an Olympic logo and the new mascot- Mao Jin Ja Weed

I am looking for T-shirt that says, "I love the Congo" in Hebrew or Latin.  It would be nice if it had a picture of the president of Israel or the Pope.

White people really dig expensive t-shirts with a political angle that makes them think their materialism is actually affecting political change. Silly hipsters!

Of course these shirts are affecting plitical change! They help sustain $1 an hour jobs in Palestine! You must be part of some organized right wing cabal.

...it always gets counted. Capitalism is extremely sensitive to the demands of ordinary people- as quantified by hard cold cash. Collective action, coupled w/ individual choice is the rock & a hard place that we need to reform the marketplace to human (& humane) specifications. 

BTW- "Real", what are you doing that's real for working people anywhere? waiting for the 2nd coming of Che Guevara? 

What does it matter what I do? How does that change the impact of my critique? Shall I reiterate it for you again? You do not deserve the sort of effusive praise you've been receiving as typified by the fawning back to back posts that Jewcy has been so kind as to provide you. The entire output of your company wouldn't be able to affect even the most marginal change in the situation of the Palestinians in the West Bank or even in Bethlehem. Sure, it's a great story and an awesome marketing angle, Jewish guy buys t-shirts manufactured in Palestine, but what you do does not amount to a hill of beans. I could be an inner city crack dealer specializing in elementary school students and it wouldn't change that fact. You want more facts? The manufacturing sector in the West Bank is dieing a slow and painful death. While the locals complain (incessantly) about how the occupation has detrimentally affected their economy, said occupation hasn't prevented the importation of hundreds of millions of dollars of cheap Chinese manufactured products. Even when paying wages of $1 an hour, Palestinian industry cannot compete with the Chinese. Globalization is the big bugaboo here.

What the Palestinians need is a greater investment in infrastructure and higher education. They cannot compete in manufacturing and a container of shirts isn't going to make a difference anyway. They also need to stop actively or passively supporting the waging of a war that they are ill equipped to fight and will never win anyway. But that's all besides the point. I don't think what you're doing is bad, I just don't think we need to hold you up as some shining example of a benevolent entrepreneur when the people your suppliers employ get paid shit wages. You're a savvy businessman with a social conscience. Great. But you are, and have to be, a business man first and foremost. No one deserves special recognition or admiration for that.

If you were real, "DEAL", and had ever even tried to do anything that involved taking any risk, you'd know that. I've risked my ass, buddy. If you had ever done that for something you believed, you wouldn't begrudge the recognition we've gotten for what we have done. and you sure wouldn't begrudge us any profit that might be realized by the risk we've taken. this is still the longest of long shots, by a country mile.

I know you know how to read, and yet you keep avoiding the issue. You don't know me and you have no idea what I do. Like I said, I could be a crack dealer, I could be a bored secretary surfing on the Internet at work, I could be anyone and that ought not have any bearing with respect to my argument. That you don't address it is telling.

For instance, every day in Israel, Jewish businessmen out to make a buck, risk their asses and travel to the West Bank and even Gaza to buy Palestinian grown produce for sale and consumption in Israel. In this, a Shmita year, even the Eida Haredit sends Rabbis, in full Haredi garb - earlocks, beards, long black coats, to Gaza to get Shmita-Kosher produce. Millions and millions of dollars worth. So where are the laudatory posts for them? Can they apply for a special prize too?

They don't need laudatory posts. They don't need, but I am sure they can use, $10,000 awards. They are in business. Business is all about risk. You have a nice marketing angle that seems to resonate with the hipsters, Jewish or otherwise. Good for you! I wish you the best of luck! But my critical thinking abilities do not end where Jewcy's gushy posts and your vapid marketing begins.

I've been thinking about you a bit today, Deal, in between everything else on the plate, and you do have some valid questions. I'm new to the blogsphere's confrontational shtick & I got defensive. but you're right- what's so special about this little pish in the ocean of need over there? 

we do need infrastructure- and that's in the works. job one is turning the armed gangs into construction companies. hey it worked in Jersey!

and of course we need higher education- but that takes a generation to impact & time is something we don't have much of, I fear.

what we do need, fast, is a little more good faith & good will as expressed in concrete actions that improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians. We need recognition of common humanity & a glimmer of hope that even a baby step forward is possible. neither side believes what we're doing is possible-and for that reason alone, it matters. It matters for the Palestinians to see Christian & Jewish schools & camps & hopefully department stores buying stuff because it's made on the West Bank. the folks in Bethlehem can't believe we're doing it. they usually put Bethlehem, Israel on the stuff they make for export. The haradeem buy produce there in spite of the fact that it's made by Palestinians- and they tend to make that abundantly clear to the sellers. and Israeli passports aren't even allowed past the checkpoints.

I do know marketing & PR. If I can use those skills to show that Palestinians aren't savages as the David Project portrays them, if I can demonstrate that they can take an opportunity to seize an opportunity, if I can show the Palestinians that most Jews in the US & Israel do want to live with them in peace & prosperity & are prepared to put their money where their mouths are then I've earned my salt & a kudo or 2 is OK too, especially if it brings my family a little extra salt. I'm not a wealthy man.

As for risk, I arrived on the West Bank 4 days after the war in Lebanon broke out, by lucky coinky-dink. I'm pretty sure I was the only Jewish businessman working on the West Bank that week. My hosts were shocked & awed that I actually showed up & the Israelis treated me like I was parachuting onto an island of head hunters. I've taken greater risks for lower stakes, I think, but it's too soon to tell. I've been getting press from the moment I got back to Jerusalem. And none of my loving competitors have followed me in yet. In the shmate biz anything that might be a hot item is knocked off before it makes the runway. As one prospective investor said this is a fugo fish. Sliced just right it's the finest sushi in the world. Cut wrong & you're dead. He passed on the deal, btw.