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For Immediate Release
July, 21 2009, 08:33am EDT
Contact:
Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, 508-769-2138
Nancy Kricorian, CODEPINK "Stolen Beauty" campaign
coordinator, 646-234-8529
Women's Peace Group Launches Boycott Campaign of Israeli Ahava Cosmetics
Company violates international law for use of West Bank resources
NEW YORK
Following a dramatic, bikini-clad demonstration yesterday
inside the beauty industry's annual major Cosmoprof conference in Las
Vegas, the leading women's peace and justice group CODEPINK announces
the launch of "Stolen Beauty," a boycott campaign against the Israeli
cosmetics company, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories. Through this campaign, CODEPINK
plans to move the company -- which sells its products in upscale shops,
spas and salons worldwide -- to end its exploitative, illegal practices and
pressure
Israel to end its violations of international law against Palestine and
its
people. "Ahava, which means 'love' in Hebrew, is hardly loving in what
it's doing in the Occupied West Bank," said Nancy Kricorian, main
organizer of the "Stolen Beauty" campaign. "With its misleading
packaging, shady exploitation of West Bank resources and more, Ahava violates
international human rights' laws and makes its profit on dirty products. By
boycotting Ahava, one supports human rights and an end to a brutal
occupation." CODEPINK, which in the past two months has already staged three demonstrations against Ahava in
Israel and New York City (view photos and video
here and of yesterday's actions here), recently sent a fact-finding mission to the Ahava headquarters in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the Occupied
West Bank. What they found made their skin crawl: its products produced on site in the Occupied West Bank are labeled of 'Israeli origin' even though, according
to international law including the relevant UN Security Council
Resolutions, the West Bank cannot be considered to be part of the State of
Israel. The company also exploits occupied natural resources for profit, which is a
violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Ahava does its best to hide its
dirt of exploiting the Occupied West Bank for profit and funding
illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, even hiring Oxfam
Ambassador and 'Sex and the City' star Kristin Davis as its
spokesperson. As a women's group, CODEPINK felt itself an apt group to push Ahava to come clean, shut down its factory in the
Palestinian West Bank and move the Israeli government to end its inhumane policies toward Palestine.
"We
are here to tell AHAVA, which claims to be devoted to beauty and
purity, that you cannot cover up occupation and violation of
international law," said Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, who led the
demonstration yesterday at Cosmoprof. "We call on AHAVA to come clean."
'Stolen Beauty' is CODEPINK's contribution to the international
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement
against institutions and
corporations that give tacit or material support to the Israel's
occupation of the Palestinian Territory, designed to pressure
the Israeli government to end the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and
East
Jerusalem. The boycott became more urgent following Israel's brutal assault in Gaza in January that killed more than 1,300 Gazan civilians, injured
5,300, destroyed approximately 4,000 homes and displaced 50,000 people into
temporary U.N. shelters. Conditions have since worsened because of
Israel's 21-month blockade of Gazan borders, Israel's continued
demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, and land appropriations
and violent repression in the West Bank.
For more information, please contact Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national
media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Nancy Kricorian, Stolen Beauty campaign
coordinator, at 646-234-8529. For more information on the campaign, recent
protest events and more, visit www.stolenbeauty.org; on the manufacturer and
its involvement in the occupation, visit "Who Profits from the Occupation?" (a
project of The Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace): https://www.whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=575;
on the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign, visit Global
BDS Movement for Palestine: https://www.bdsmovement.net/
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
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