Anna Baltzer: Boycott Ahava
September 1st, 2010 § 2 Comments
Author and activist Anna Baltzer explains why the Israeli beauty company, Ahava, should be boycotted by citizens of conscience.
Baltzer:
What does it mean to try and find beauty out of this destruction and the denial of Palestinian human rights? There is nothing beautiful about that at all. To buy beauty products to whitewash what Israel is doing is so contrary to the basic tenets of Judaism, to the tenets of morality. As a Jewish person I reject the idea that there is anything beautiful about occupation, that there is anything beautiful about displacement…
The reason behind the call for a boycott of Ahava is summed up well in the following description from an Electronic Intifada article:
According to the Israeli group Who Profits From the Occupation? (www.whoprofits.org), the mud used in Ahava products is taken from a site on the shores of the Dead Sea inside the occupied territory, next to Kalia. Ahava uses Palestinian natural resources without the permission of or compensation to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israel denies Palestinians access to the shores of the Dead Sea and its resources, although one-third of the western shore of the Dead Sea lies in the occupied West Bank.
For more information and to find out how you can help visit Code Pink’s Stolen Beauty Campaign page.
It is tragic that most of the exploited and intimidated Arab populations of the Middle East are still deprived of basic human rights. The plight and denigration of the Palestinian refugees, in the Arab Nations adjacent to the State of Israel, is attributable, primarily, to lack of Muslim compassion and the lack of affinity of the Arab Leadership for their ”common people”.
Rather than opting for the destruction of Israel and the sacrifice of their youth in the process, the Arab masses would be better served by demanding of their leaders enfranchisement and a fairer distribution of the abundant natural resources they exploit so avidly.
The opportunist autocratic despotic leaders, of most Muslim countries, would do well to heed ‘the writing on the wall’ and move in the direction of converting their regimes into the more humane, constructive and democratic systems.
The dissipation of Middle East Arab wealth on personal indulgences, political strife and sacrilegious declarations of ‘Jihad’, in face of the dire needs of the Arab multitudes, should no longer be condoned by the civilized populace of this world; least of all should it be tolerated by the disfranchised and exploited Saudi, Iranians & Syrians.
Democratic nations who, truly, are interested in coming to the aid of the “deprived Middle East Arab Nations” should establish the “League of United Democratic Nations” (LOUD) whose objective should be to strictly aid & primarily “loudly” promote the interest of Freedom Loving Countries. They should, also, encourage and facilitate the inclusion of those Autocratic Nations who wish to embrace the obvious blessings of Democracy in action.
Strangely, how every one is concerned about the Palestinians, After 60 years they should have had a homeland and relocated. What ever happened to the millions of jews that lost homes, all their belongings in Europe. What was given back to them. Who felt sorry for them. Not only material things but their whole families. Shame on this women Baltzer. She calls her self a Jew. What an idiot. Maybe Israel is surprising the world since they do not allow themselves to be pushed around, As they say at Passover time, Dayenu. Enough is enough.