Adidas faces backlash over campaign featuring ex-Israeli soldier who lost leg in Gaza war

Adidas is facing a growing backlash over an advertising campaign for its single-shoe service for amputees that features a former Israeli army soldier.

The campaign features Shalev Biton, a former Israeli soldier who lost a leg after being wounded during the 2021 Israel-Gaza conflict, reports Al Jazeera.

In the advertisement, Biton is seen trying on a shoe at an Adidas store in Israel before running outdoors.

A boycott campaigns coordinator on Sunday described the advertisement as “an affront to Palestinians”.

The 2021 conflict saw the Israeli army carry out repeated attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip over an 11-day period.

Human rights campaigners and pro-Palestine activists said the backlash against the German sportswear company was unsurprising, given Biton’s military background and the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

“This isn’t Adidas being tone-deaf or insensitive; it is an absolute affront to the Palestinians who have lost their loved ones, killed by Israel, and who have lost their limbs [to Israeli attacks],” Stephanie Westbrook told Al Jazeera.

She is a sports boycott campaigns coordinator for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) – a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Westbrook said campaigns such as the Adidas advertisement risked helping to “normalise Israel’s crimes against Palestinians and allow it to continue to commit them with impunity”.

“Here we have an Adidas campaign featuring an Israeli soldier, whose whole identity is centred around his being a soldier, who lost his leg while participating in one of the repeated Israeli assaults on Gaza, serving in an army of a state that is currently committing genocide, has carried out an illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territory, and that has been imposing a decades-long apartheid rule over Palestinians,” she said.

The controversy comes as Gaza faces a severe shortage of medical and rehabilitation services. The World Health Organization estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 people in Gaza had undergone amputations by early October 2025, when Israel and Hamas signed a “ceasefire” agreement.

Those amputees are among an estimated 42,000 Palestinians who suffered life-changing injuries during the two-year conflict.

Nearly a year after the ceasefire, conditions in the enclave remain dire, with Israel blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

The contrast between the advertisement and the situation facing Palestinian athletes has also drawn criticism. While Biton is shown exercising and running outdoors after losing his leg, more than 1,000 Palestinian athletes have been killed during Israel’s war on Gaza.

Hundreds of aspiring footballers have also lost limbs. Some have since formed amputee football teams, using the sport as a way to cope with their circumstances and regain parts of their former lives amid prolonged loss, injury and destruction.

The boycott campaign has received support from several prominent figures. Spanish actor Javier Bardem, a vocal pro-Palestine activist, shared images and videos promoting the boycott campaign on his social media accounts.

US-Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa, Pakistani author Fatima Bhutto and Palestinians on social media have also urged people to boycott Adidas products.

Westbrook also pointed to the impact of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, saying it has restricted the entry of medicines and prosthetics following the destruction of medical facilities across the territory.

According to the International Rescue Committee, children have made up a quarter of all amputations in Gaza over the past two years, giving the territory the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.

Westbrook said Israel had “decimated the health sector”, leaving Gaza with a severe shortage of care and rehabilitation services.

“Its medieval siege is preventing prosthetics from even entering Gaza, creating this man-made shortage,” she added.

UNICEF says 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-altering injuries since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023. Of them, 11,000 are children.