Zara Israel faces boycott after boss linked to extreme-right

JERUSALEM — Spanish fashion giant Zara is facing boycott calls in Israel after the company's local franchise head hosted extreme-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir for a campaign event.

Recent opinion polls suggest Ben-Gvir has been gaining strength ahead of the Nov. 1 election, which could see his nationalist alliance emerge as the third-largest bloc in parliament.

His meeting with Joey Schwebel, chair of Zara's Israel franchisee Trimera, sparked a backlash after local media reported it last week, with some people burning Zara items and pushing for a boycott.

Fayez Abu Souhaiban, mayor of Rahat, an Arab-majority town in southern Israel, slammed Zara in a video circulated on social media.

"We have to burn these clothes and I call on fellow citizens to boycott this company," he said, as he set a Zara item ablaze.

Ben-Gvir, who lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank, regularly turns up at hotspots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has become infamous for his anti-Arab rhetoric.

Arab-Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi hit out on Twitter at the "ugliness" of the meeting, to which Ben-Gvir replied: "Zara, beautiful clothes, beautiful Israelis."

The far-right leader had campaigned for the extremist Kach movement, which was outlawed in 1994 as a "terrorist" organization after supporter Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Asked about the reported meeting, Ben-Gvir's spokesperson described it to AFP as a "private event," declining further comment.

Zara did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Schwebel also declined to comment. "We do not refer to personal issues of the family," a statement read.