Protest T-shirts bearing political and social messages have been popular since the Vietnam War in the 1960s. These shirts serve as a canvas for their creators, featuring visual imagery, text or a combination of both. Their simple and familiar design, comfortable cotton fabric and the ease of mass printing have turned them into wearable billboards.
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A protester wearing a Comrade Workwear shirt featuring Benjamin Netanyahu as target practice
(Photo: Andres Kudacki/AP)
In an era of increasingly extreme messages on social media, it's important to examine the line between legitimate expression and incitement. James Harr, born in 1993, is a designer who operates under the brand name Comrade Workwear. In 2013, he began studying fashion design at Parsons in New York, where he says he was exposed to radical politics and heterodox economics. The brand he founded, he explains on his website, is his way of expressing an alternative future and using fashion as a tool for expression, connection and education.
Harr has tens of thousands of followers on social media and millions of views on TikTok.
Harr's TikTok account is a hub of "alternative facts" and conspiracy theories against Israel, including questioning the death toll of the October 7 massacre and glorifying terrorists, in short videos often set to klezmer music. It is not surprising to find that he uses every means at his disposal to promote his agenda, which, judging by the positive reactions on TikTok, has a substantial following.
One of the designs Harr offers in his online store depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "target for shooting practice." The print, which appears on T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts and hoodies, shows a black-and-white image of Netanyahu with two red target markers: one on his head and another on his chest. Harr describes the shirt as a call for intifada and the liberation of Palestine, adding that Netanyahu's father, Benzion Mileikowsky, changed their family name to Netanyahu to sound more indigenous.
Harr's shirts have become popular at anti-Israel protests in the United States, such as the one in New York on May 6, coinciding with the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instagram features protesters wearing shirts targeting the Israeli prime minister.
In addition to the Netanyahu shirt, Haarr created a series of shirts featuring terrorists, including shahids, or Muslims who have died for their cause, with Hamas headbands and the image of Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, involved in the 1970 attempted hijacking of an El Al plane. The shirts are described as "unconditional support for those fighting for the collective liberation of the Palestinian people against the 100-year ethnic cleansing project of Zionist settler-colonialism," writes Harr. "Proceeds will fund charitable donations to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to alleviate the suffering of those affected by the Israeli genocide in Gaza."