‘Merry Ham-mas’ Christmas bag sparks criticism, gets pulled from Kmart in Australia

Kmart Australia apologized and removed a Christmas ham bag after a Jewish group criticized the item’s “Merry Ham-mas” pun.

The Christmas ham bag was available for $4 at Australian Kmart stores, The West Australian reported. Photos show the tan-colored drawstring bag emblazoned with “Merry Ham-mas,” a Christmas tree, some stars, a present and pieces of holly.

“Check out the special Christmas bag currently available via K-Mart online. Yes, it’s real!!” the Australian Jewish Association wrote in a Nov. 7 post on Twitter, now rebranded as X. “Although this is potentially funny … it’s really not a good look.”

The Jewish group criticized the pun’s similarity to the name of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group based in the Gaza Strip and currently at war with Israel. The group asked that the store remove the bag.

Kmart Australia told McClatchy News that “we got it wrong on this occasion, and we apologize unreservedly.”

The Twitter community clarified the release of the product, saying “that sort of joke wording (has) been around for a long time,” and providing an example from 2020.

“When designing this product we clearly didn’t think through all the implications and the product has been removed from sale,” the grocery store chain told McClatchy News.

On the Kmart Australia website, the ham bag is visible in some search previews but no longer listed for sale.

Kmart Australia’s parent company, Wesfarmers, did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.

The Christmas ham bag does not seem to be available in the U.S. Kmart stores. McClatchy News reached out to the company for confirmation but did not receive an immediate response.

The Australian Jewish Association said the bag was “being pulled now from the website and all stores,” according to an update on Twitter.

“I want to give credit to Kmart management as they acted very quickly,” the group’s president, David Adler, told The Western Australian.

“Of course, there are bigger issues to be addressed,” Adler said, “but one of the other things we are dealing with is propaganda. It’s not normal times, there are people that will distort things and will harass the Jewish community.”

The ongoing war began after Hamas armed fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, took hostages and killed hundreds of Israeli citizens. In the unprecedented conflict that followed, over 10,000 Palestinians and about 1,400 Israelis have been killed as of Nov. 7, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. officials reported rising threats “against Arab, Jewish and Muslim communities as (the) Gaza war intensifies,” according to The Washington Post.

Similarly, antisemitism and Islamophobia have also risen in Europe since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Al Jazeera reported.

UPDATE (11.10): The story was updated with comments from Kmart Australia.

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