![Image of a Fidget spinner [Twitter]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017_05_10-Image-of-a-Fidget-spinnerfidgetspinner_5.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Fidget spinners, small gadgets which you can twirl between your fingers, were invented to distract Palestinian children and stop them throwing rocks at Israeli occupation forces in the occupied territories.
In an interview with Time magazine, Catherine Hettinger, an American who invented the toys, explained that she had heard about Palestinian boys clashing with Israeli forces while she was visiting her sister in Israel, so she decided to create a device which would occupy them.
Her creations have been two decades in the making with the first going on sale in 1993, however they only hit the mass market this year.
It started as a way of promoting peace, and then I went on to find something that was very calming
Hettinger, now in her 60s, told Time’s Money section.
The spinners are intended to calm nerves and help with stress and anxiety, and Hettinger said she used them when she was trying to sell the product to major games manufacturers and they helped calm her nerves ahead of meetings.
However critics have said that her invention belittles and undermines the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the racist policies which have been passed to control Arabs in Israel and which have led to the ongoing clashes between Palestinians and occupying Israeli forces.
Ma nouvelle addiction #HandSpinner pic.twitter.com/sJ2DbsykeM
— The Share Players (@TheSharePlayers) April 29, 2017