Meanwhile, At Smythys Toys

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Spotted Saturday on Jervis Street, Dublin 1.

Previously: Kinvara Responds

Thanks Ronan Emmet and Paul Reynolds

UPDATE:

Thanks Rabble

Update:

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Thanks John Gallen

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128 thoughts on “Meanwhile, At Smythys Toys

  1. Chucky R. Law

    Smythys toys are a competitor just down the street. They just waltzed in and removed the products from Smyths’ shelves. At least I think that’s what it means.

    1. Am I Still on This Island

      Not likely Lilly as Smyths have all ready retracted this and said they did not put this up story on independent.ie and Irish times now.

    1. cityca

      Kind of ironic that you quote the generic Palestine Solidarity Campaign – the people whose motto is: “Palestine shall be free, from the river to the sea”, i.e. no more Israel.

      So do I take it you are in favour of genocide and ethnic cleansing – the Hamas solution to Israel? Same question to the other IPSC members/supporters here?

        1. cityca

          Is that your reply? I’ll take that it a yes, shall I? You’re in favour of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Sounds about right for the PSC.

      1. WhoAreYa

        I am in favour for Right of Return for the unlawful settlers in Palestine to the countries like UK, Ireland, and Germany from where they came.

        I would like to see a return to pre-1948 borders and a one-state solution where the Rule of Law can be upheld for all Palestinian irrespective of ethnicity.

        The Jewish State is failed, its an abomination and all reasonable people can see that now.

    1. Am i still On this Island

      If loom bands were made in Israel they wouldn’t be doing this, the manufacturer they stock makes arts and crafts materials and games

  2. Dick Byrne

    Good news.

    Always found the Dunnes Stores anti-Apartheid strikers quite an inspiring bunch – hopefully more workers and retailers can today make their feelings about this ethnic cleansing known through a similar refusal to handle goods. Small gestures, but important.

  3. Odis

    “Israel in Ireland” – this is worrying. They haven’t been promised Ireland, by God, in some old book have they?

    1. Ploika

      You’re veering into anti-Semitic territory there. Stop that. It’s the IDF and hardline Israeli government that are causing problems, not Jews.

        1. ronan

          That’s right, they are not. They are the military and govenment of a nation, not a singular religious group. Are you saying is it a requirement now to be Jewish to be an Israeli?
          Criticism of a country is different from irrational intolerance of a religious group.

        2. cityca

          FYI, the Israeli government and the IDF consist of Jewish Israelis, Arab Israelis – both Muslims and Christians, Druze and Bedouin and other faiths.

          20% of Israelis are Arabs and they serve in the government, diplomatic service, judiciary, military, law enforcement, and across the spectrum of public and private offices.

  4. Eliot Rosewater

    Israel in Ireland are hilarious: would love to know some background on them. If anyone has any ideas, let me know (they keep removing my posts and I can’t seem to comment on their page anymore).

    1. shitferbrains

      It’s the Israeli Embassy and the clue is that it says so on their FB page. I vote you our next Minister for Foreign Affairs.

      1. bisted

        ‘…I vote you our next Minister for Foreign Affairs’…..has Avigdor Lieberman resigned then?

      2. Odis

        @ shitferbrains – So the Israeli Embassy likes to be out first with its own antisemitic posts?
        How revealing. I’d never have guessed. Knock me dead wiv a feather m8 etc.

    2. Daffyd

      Apparently they’re a husband and wife team who are a tad eccentric. The Israeli govt doesn’t really care about Ireland as a diplomatic station so they’re given pretty free reign.

      1. chris

        The Israeli government doesn’t seem to care about anyone except the Israelis. They have now bombed three UN schools, and there have been no reprisals of any kind from the international community – so why should they give a damn? They appear to be allowed to act with impunity.

        1. cityca

          UN schools have been used as repositories for Hamas weapons and combatants. Their ambulances have been used to ferry weapons, explosives and combatants frequently.

          The vast majority of UN personnel in Gaza and the West bank are Palestinians, so their actions may be dictated by their allegiances. Which is to say the UN cannot be viewed as a neutral in this conflict.

    3. 15 cents

      they do that to me too. they delete all posts and block you if your going against them, even if your polite and reasonable. they constantly play the anit-semite card. is v frustrating to read their posts. im constantly shaking my head in disbelief that an actual official embassy carry on the way they do. well, then again, im surprised at how their country carry on too. the IDF page is also really sick. slappin themselves on the back for every missile they fire.

      1. jungleman

        I’m not surprised at all by the way the embassy carries on. I do find it surprising that the government doesn’t kick them out for it though.

        1. cityca

          On that basis, are you surprised that your government has not kicked out the Russians, the Chinese, the Americans, the Pakistanis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Iraqis or is there some special reason you are only surprised about Israel?

  5. Langer

    At least they’re still selling Russian and Syrian toys, God bless them, so we’ll be ok for Christmas……

      1. Case

        Your true feelings finally Cityca, what utterly evil words.You are attempting to dehumanise every Palestinian. Hitler used to compare Jews to rats, you are no better! Utter scum

        1. WhoAreYa

          You can do this yourself Case. Report them to the Immigrant Rights Council of Ireland they will advise you on the process to report racist hate crime.

  6. Pablo Pistachio

    Well done Smyths.

    Who is the person on the Israel in Ireland twitter account? They are clearly mentally ill. How do we go about getting them help?

  7. Jimbob

    Broadsheet, you are consistently almost a day behind with most news. There’s a website called Rabble that always gets the news out hours before you. They put this story up yesterday. I’m unliking your facebook page as you are exactly the same as them, except slower.

      1. Jimbob

        News / Updates / Whatever! My facebook timeline was full of duplicate “news” stories. First from Rabble, then Broadsheet with the same story a few hours later.

    1. Caroline

      Wow, that panty bunching brought a tear even to my eye. You seem exactly the same as every other broadsheet commenter, only slower.

  8. Casey

    Last night I watched a news report where a militant extremist Israeli group sang with great joy and gusto”There is no school in Gaza tomorrow, the children are all dead”

    Yes, this was an extremist group. No, it would be wrong to assume that just because *some* people turned out to chant these words gleefully that all Israelis want all Palistine children massacred.

    We know there are people in Israel that object to the bombings, Channel4 news in the UK last week showed them being harranged by the more militant Israeli elements and bundled into jail for daring to protest.

    However the mindset of some people is that the targeting and bombing of innocent children is something to be happy about because it means they are “winning”. Time to hit them where it hurts. In the pocket. Perhaps when their jobs are under threat and their bellies are as empty as those children left in refugee camps in Gaza, they might re-think their “joy” in the slaughter of the undeserving.

    Obligatory disclaimer: I am not pro-Israel, I am not pro-Palistine. I am not pro-Zionist, I am not anti-Zionish,,,,, FFS, I am just against the deliberate targeting of the young and the helpless.

    1. cityca

      @casey
      Could be they are getting their own back from years of schools being disrupted in Israel, due to rockets from Gaza. The physical casualties in Gaza are appalling and tragic. What you never see is the psychological and occasional physical damage done by rockets to the kids in Israel. Traumatic stress disorder – not post because it’s ongoing – is rife among almost 2 generations of Israel kids. You won’t hear about that in the media.

      As to Israelis wanting all Palestinians massacred, I was in hospital in Tel Aviv last October and in the next bed was a guy from Gaza, with terminal cancer. He had the same treatment, food and care as me. Massacre? No.

      There is democratic debate in public and private in Israel – anyone bundled into jail must have been doing more than merely protesting.

      I don’t expect to change anyone’s minds with my reply – far too much prejudice and bigotry on display here, but one or two may have IQs in three figures and think for themselves rather than follow the herd, so look a bit deeper than what the media offers you.

      BTW, Hamas are the ones keeping food, and medicines, power and fuel in short supply. They won’t pay for what they want. But your donations to them via the EU, ARE paying for the concrete and metal used to build miles of tunnels and to manufacture rockets.

      You know how all the media say how useless the rockets are? Well consider this. The rockets are made out of iron and when empty of propellant they weigh 30 or 40 pounds. If you were standing next to a tall building and someone dropped 30 pounds on metal on your head from several hundred feet up, what would be the result? And if the same rocket had an explosive warhead packed with ball bearings, nails and screws and it landed 10 feet away from you, would that be no more dangerous than a firework?

      Only shelters and Iron Dome have prevented carnage taking place inside Israel. Why haven’t Hamas at least built shelters for the people of Gaza?

      1. Odis

        Nobody is trying to deny that the Israelis have a right to defend themselves against children and UN buildings

      2. Sidewinder

        Nah, by all means, don’t address anything actually said above. Just change the subject, it’s for the best.

      3. Case

        Only Shelters and Iron Dome! What rubbish !poor ickle Isreal:( with one of the largest armies in the world. The country with the most feared international intelligence network with its operatives all over the world(these lads have their hands in many a pie) Nobody wants to meet a Mossad agent do we? Couldn’t this operation have been carried out with a little mmm I dunno precision!! Sure everyone has the right to defend themselves from terrorists. But this just isn’t like with like (I am very sorry for the Isreali children with traumatic stress disorder that is truly upsetting, however counselling can help those children they can move on and forward in life, no amount of counselling will help the lifeless Palestinian children lying dead in the streets or on the beach)getting a little trite to hear the same old s**t ‘right to defend our nation’ sure you do ! The response is disproportionate Isreal is wiping out an entire ethnic group… And any other poor bastard that happens to be in their path.

        1. Cityca

          And if firing is coming from schools and mosques and other buildings – what in your opinion should be done about it?

          1. case

            Cityca! I thought we had lost you as you scuttled back to your Mensa meeting and we all drooled over our keyboards due to our slack jaws!
            Use some Finesse? Some of those Sayaret Matkal having a go perhaps? They’d get the job done? No? If The Isreali army wanted to limit the amount of civilian casualties they would and they could. If they can arrive into Uganda and handle Idi Amin and incur minimal Isreali casualties in the process(nearly 40 years ago) I would say they could have devised a better solution, No?. The IDF are quite the savvy guys don’t make out there could not have been a better solution. It looks to most of the world that they literally couldn’t be arsed because feck it, it’s only Palestinian children after all.

          2. Anne

            ‘If’.. More spin.

            If firing was coming from schools and hospitals, (which it’s not), Israel is well capable of dealing with it with it’s extremely expensive anti-missle defense system – ‘Iron Dome’, that was funded by the U.S.

            It’s indefensible excusing the mass murder of civilians.

          3. WhoAreYa

            In my opinion if Israel are firing from schools and mosques it should be condemned vehemently

          4. Cityca

            Case,

            Entebbe and Gaza are very different scenarios, with utterly different problems.

            Gaza is like a rabbit warren. Full of hidden spaces and levels, including the tunnel network. Any other military – certainly the US, Russia, China and possibly the UK would have levelled it with bombs. Israel chose to send in ground troops for house to house fighting and because the easier option wasn’t an option.

          5. Cityca

            Anne
            How do you know firing is not coming from these buildings?

            I do not defend the mass murder of civilians in any way. I do ask how you ignore Hamas’s actions in deliberately initiating terror acts near to civilian areas with the express intention of getting their own people killed. You appear to have eyes only for one side in this conflict. Why is that?

          6. WhoAreYa

            Cityca

            Are you the Ambassador’s wife?

            Thousands of people are coming over to your house on Saturday next to ask you to vacate.

        2. Cityca

          Israel is NOT wiping out an ‘entire ethnic group’ . Too many Gazans have died, but if ignore how that is happening, you really have no argument.

          If only from a pr point if view, it would make no sense for Israel to deliberately try to kill Palestinians. From a humanitarian point of view, the same applies.

          Just as in any other country, there are crazies baying for the blood of their enemies. But this is the exception, not the rule.

          You very easily dismiss the effects of trauma caused by rockets from Gaza. It is not quickly and easily treatable in adults or children. Their entire lives can be blighted – I work with Israeli soldiers who still suffer PTSD from ’67 and ’73 wars.

          Do you honestly believe that a culture that has brought so much science and medicine to the world is oblivious to the carnage the struggle against Hamas is causing?

          Perhaps you have a solution to stopping the rockets and missiles. How do you talk to people whose main ambition is to want you dead?

          1. Anne

            “Israel is NOT wiping out an ‘entire ethnic group’ . Too many Gazans have died, but if ignore how that is happening, you really have no argument”

            Israel are bombing civilians – schools, hospitals, mosques, kids on a beach.. You have no argument all right.

          2. WhoAreYa

            Clearly the best way is to kill all their babies and bonus points if they are sleeping in a hospital

          3. case

            I have no argument? I haven’t ignored it. it just doesn’t justify the month long pounding . I don’t agree with you Cityca I suggest you cope with that.

            I did not dismiss it! it is upsetting but it can be fixed , you cannot fix a dead person?
            I do know about PTSD Cityca but sorry to tell you the IDF don’t get to monopolise that, ANYONE in a warzone can suffer badly from PTSD.
            You have mentioned that Isreal has brought so much science to the world? thanks for helping me along with my point, Surely one of the worlds leaders in Science, medicine and might I add military technology, could have managed to minimise the civilian casualties?

          4. WhoAreYa

            I must admit though that when choosing between terrorist groups I do prefer the IDF. I love that the women are in the army killing babies as well, SOO sexy!

          5. Anne

            ” I don’t agree with you Cityca”

            And rightly so.. He’s a spin merchant. An apologist.
            A propagandist for the lunatic state that is Israel.

          6. Case

            House to House, UN building to UN building, Beach to Beach, Playground to Playground. The IDF have the means but not the will. Again I do not agree with you cope with that:)

      4. Clampers Outside!

        “getting their own back”… ah well then…. sure… they’re only kids we’re on about. I guess that makes it a-OK with you.

        On another note, if we were all to, as you say, to “look a bit deeper than what the media offers you” we would all be telling Israel to carry on, ya muppet. The heavily pro-Israel international media is and has been the problem for years. Get a grip, and take your own advise.

  9. TC1965

    Are we going to also boycott Saudi oil as they treat women appallingly and have bad human rights record, Russian gas due to their incursion into Ukraine and the shooting down of a passenger jet, USA goods due to their torture in Guantanamo bay and the hundreds and thousands dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, China for so many reasons… How about boycotting Sweden due to their arms sales, France for their arms sales to Russia,

    1. Lilly

      It’s odd that whenever there’s a post about Israel, all these strange usernames, people who who don’t normally post here, show up to weigh in on behalf of Israel.

    2. Odis

      There is one crucial difference here TC1965. The countries you mention doesn’t infect our discussion boards, like the latest pox,
      Expecting our gratitude for their restrained ethnic cleansing and the slaughter of children.

        1. Odis

          Is that true Smashy, I hadn’t realised. How smart of me to make the anology.

          A virus such as say Ebola, is an indiscriminate killing machine. And the IDF is an indiscriminate killing machine.

          Though the anolgy ends there doesn’t it. Because Ebola doesn’t expect us to be grateful for the slaughter of children, Ebola doesn’t try to imply its “on our side” in the crusade against the Muzz. And Ebola isn’t here on this message board.

          1. Smashmouth

            Your inability to differentiate between Israel as a nation of people and the IDF as the military offshoot of its government is narrow minded to say the least

          2. bisted

            …Israel is a pariah state that we are constantly told is the only democracy in the Middle East. The IDF exists to carry out the will of their political masters. The mandate for their present wave of genocide was renewed at a recent election. The Israeli ‘nation’ knew exactly what to expect.

          3. Smashmouth

            Correct

            and in a democracy the majority of the people have their wishes fulfilled – not ALL of the people

            To go down the route of branding the entire Israeli populace as being warmongers is wrong

            To indicate that all people of Jewish faith suport the conflict is equally wrong

            When Ireland voted to abstain from the UN vote last week did that reflect your own opinion? I would presume not, however by your own argument Ireland as a nation of people voted to abstain as we are a democracy

          4. cityca

            Hitler and his friends called Jews untermenschen – is comparing us to viruses the latest incarnation of dehumanising Jews?

            I suspect Hamas would agree.

  10. Tony

    Broadsheet,

    Whenever I search in your site I get limited results to my queries. There is a website called Google which is much better for searching than your site. This is why I am unliking you on MySpace. Goodbye forever.

  11. INM Breaking News

    Seems to have been reversed:

    http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/ThreeTrending/news/smyths-toys-reverse-decision-to-remove-israeli-products-from-shelves-30482074.html

    Bizarre that Smyths would seek to advertise this boycott in the first place rather than just do it. And if someone in Smyths did do this on their own – and cannot spell the name of their employer into the bargain – well, doesn’t say much that this could ever have been a corporate or even locally agreed endorsement in the first place. Someone can pick up their P45.

  12. Ray

    History will not judge Israel well. They have the might today, but their disproportionate actions will never be forgotten. Some day there will be justice. Unfortunately it may take another generation to redress the current wrongs.

    1. shitferbrains

      Are you kidding ? The Twitter generation have largely forgotten the carnage in the North, opting to believe there was nothing but a Peace Process.

  13. bisted

    ….it appears Smyths Toys have caved in to the Israeli lobby and restored the Israeli products to their shelves claiming that the action was only taken in one store against company policy….bad move Smyths…hero to zero in less than a day….shame.

    1. Lilly

      Kudos to the Jervis St staff for taking the initative. Shame their head office didn’t back them up. But at least the public knows now to add Amav toys to the blacklist.

  14. PJ Hammond

    I wonder what activists like Mark Hoskins and Stephanie Lord think of this U-turn by Smyths?

  15. cityca

    So good to be on a website where there is free debate flowing to and from among the habitués. So I won’t be coming back here – closed minds, bigoted attitudes and just a hint of racism. All those villages missing their useful idiots need look no further.

    1. Case

      Aww Cityca, thanks a million for proving the point! As soon as anyone disagrees with the Isreali military campaign it’s supporters come out with the usual gem of accusing dissenting voices of being racists, bigots and just plain stupid. Great debating skills there :) Mr Netanyahu would be so proud of you ! Congrats

  16. martco

    Smyths have a major monopoly in the toy sales business in Ireland and in fact would have to be one of Ireland’s most successful retail operations…SO why not write to them and make your view known:

    http://www.smythstoys.com/ie/en-ie/Contact/

    I worked out this evening that I probably spend somewhere between €500-€700 per year in Smyths on various presents for my own and for related children parties Christmas etc etc.

    I won’t darken their door again after seeing what’s just gone down…hero to zero

    1. martco

      my “ticket” got a timely and informative response……

      cshelpdesk@smythstoys.com (cshelpdesk@smythstoys.com)
      Dear Customer.
      Thank you for your email.

      Smyths Toys sells products for children in 30 stores across Ireland and imports from countries across the world. We do not engage in national or international political affairs.

      One store last week took products from one country off its shelves. This decision has now been reversed. Our customers should be free to make their own decisions.

      Regards
      Bridie
      Customer Services Dept
      Smyths Toys Superstores

    2. Hosanna in the Hiace

      I’m sure Amazon will be delighted to hear that.

      Can’t you just not buy Israeli goods yourself?

      1. martco

        not sure I understand your question….
        nothing I spend will end up in an Israeli’s pocket ever again. goods, services, whatever.

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