Palestinian shoemaker Imad Mohammad makes handcrafted footwear with a difference: shoes, stamped with the names of the US and French presidents in Arabic calligraphy to show his disapproval of them.
“Shoes touch the ground, dust and dirt. So if we write someone’s name on them and that also gets dirty, then it shows... how you value that person,” Mohammad said.
He said he chose to stamp the name of US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on the shoes because they “assaulted our people.”
Photo: AFP
Initially the mustachioed shoemaker, who has a shop in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, launched a line dedicated to Trump.
That was after Trump in May 2018 moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, putting Washington at odds with the international community.
Trump’s move, a year after he recognized the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, infuriated the Palestinians who hope to have their own state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The shoes bearing the US president’s name cost 200 shekels (US$59) and are made of “genuine leather inside and outside, and are more genuine than him,” Mohammad said.
Last week, the shoemaker embarked on a new project fueled by anger over Macron’s defense of the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed on free speech grounds.
“Why, Macron, did you attack a prophet who died 1,500 years ago?” said Mohammad, who accused the French leader of seeking to “insult Muslims.”
“And I, as a Muslim, reject this contempt and reject this offense,” he added, demanding an apology from Macron.
“The apology is for my people because the insult was against my people... and my Islamic nation,” Mohammad said.
Any US and French clients who enter the Ramallah shop are greeted with signs demanding that they, too, apologize for the words and deeds of their presidents.
French customers are told that they can only enter if they apologize for Macron’s statements, and Americans are asked to seek forgiveness for Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem and the embassy move.
However, Mohammad said that he is willing to remove one of the posters should Trump’s challenger, former US vice president Joe Biden, win in Tuesday’s US presidential election and “rescind” Trump’s policies.
“I will not remove the demand for an apology from the Americans unless America’s decision [to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital] is canceled. If Biden rescinds the decision, I will remove the sign, and I will be happy,” he said.
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