Etsy markets itself as the home of independent makers, connecting buyers to unique, handmade, and vintage goods. Its consumer-facing image emphasizes creativity, small business empowerment, and ethical shopping.
In practice, Etsy’s marketplace has come under scrutiny for hosting shops based in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Investigations in 2024 documented dozens of settlement-based sellers on the platform, including in Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, and Tekoa. Each sale generates fees for Etsy, embedding the company in an economy of dispossession and apartheid. Despite acknowledging these findings, Etsy has failed to proactively remove the listings or implement clear restrictions, allowing its platform to normalize the sale of settlement goods under the banner of artisanal commerce.
By hosting and monetizing listings from sellers in Israeli settlements, Etsy plays an indirect but meaningful role in normalizing and facilitating commerce in illegally occupied territories. The company thus becomes an active enabler of economic activity tied to apartheid, rather than a neutral marketplace. Although Etsy professes legal compliance, it has failed to proactively remove or clearly flag such listings, raising concerns about its ethical and regulatory stance.
Millions of buyers seeking “ethical” and “handmade” goods are unknowingly funnelling money into systems of dispossession. Boycotting Etsy highlights how even consumer platforms built on artisanal branding can be structurally complicit in settler colonialism when oversight and accountability are absent.
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