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JANICE TURNER

M&S ad conspiracy theory is ugly new low

If only we could laugh off claims of anti-Palestinian symbols in the Christmas advert, but it’s more dangerous than that

The Times

In the Marks & Spencer Christmas ad, the singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s blue and white eye shadow signifies Israel, while the Christmas cards she blowtorches along with a marshmallow roof on a gingerbread house represent Muslim children and their homes.

The party hats Hannah Waddingham burns in a fireplace are green, white and red, the colours of the Palestinian flag. And when Tan France from Queer Eye scatters a Monopoly game into a goldfish bowl the paper money is US dollars, the fish tank is Gaza. A gold confetti cannon finale celebrates Israel’s inevitable triumph.

Can’t you see it? Doesn’t it all make sense now? Michael Marks, who founded M&S with Thomas Spencer, was a Zionist Jew who supported the creation of Israel and established British-Israeli