Amazon has stopped selling The Thorn and the Carnation, a book written by Hamas senior leader Yahya Sinwar, following a complaint filed with the e-commerce giant by Israeli NGO B’Tzalmo.
“I welcome the removal of Yahya Sinwar’s book,” said Shai Glick, CEO of B’Tzalmo. “The reality in which an arch-terrorist sells a book through an American commerce company, while being responsible for the murder of thousands, is unimaginable,” he said.
“Sinwar’s place is in the grave together with his books; not on the Amazon website,” he added.
Amazon promptly removed the book from its platform.
Sinwar is one of the masterminds of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, in which 1,200 Israelis, mostly citizens, were slaughtered, with many raped and tortured. More than 250 Israelis were taken hostage, of whom 133 remain in Gaza.
Amazon has at times struggled to remove offensive comments from its platform. Two years ago, Americans Against Anti-Semitism asked Amazon to take down more than 30 Nazi propaganda films that were available for purchase and streaming.
The watchdog group at the time said that Amazon was “presently the world’s largest purveyor of original Nazi propaganda films—something Hitler and Goebbels would surely have been grateful for.”
In December 2023, despite announcing in 2020 that it was banning a selection of Nazi-authored books, including most editions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, the online retailer continued to allow the sale of antisemitic paraphernalia.
Amazon has removed some items after complaints from the Anti-Defamation League and Simon Wiesenthal Center; however, other items remain.
