Ahava Stolen Beauty

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Health & Beauty

Behind its statements of environmental consciousness and message of love, [skincare brand] AHAVA is hiding a dirty secret: although its products say ‘Made in Israel,’ its plant is in the occupied West Bank. That means that the Dead Sea Mineral Mud is made from exploited natural resources – AHAVA is appropriating the mud from the Dead Sea and passing it off as an Israeli product. Under the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal for an occupying force to take from or profit from the natural resources of the occupied country. AHAVA’s products are illegally made and sold: they are stolen goods (Source: GRRRL_REVOLUTION 2009, np link).

In 2009, the antiwar activist group CodePink launched the ‘Stolen Beauty’ campaign, specifically targeting Ahava’s products as part of the larger boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign (Source: Miller 2012, np link).

On June 6 [2009], the group launched its … campaign at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, where pink bikini-clad protesters painted ‘NO AHAVA/NO LOVE’ on their bodies in mud  (Source: Eanet 2009, p.10).

The Stolen Beauty campaign has included protest actions by ‘bikini brigades’ around the United States organized by the American peace group CODEPINK, and allied actions have taken place in London, Paris, Vienna, Montreal and Amsterdam. The Dutch ‘bathrobe brigades’ that appeared in shopping centers in Amsterdam and Haarlem … caught the eye of the press (Source: Nieuwhof 2009, np link).

Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories [is] … an Israeli company that makes bath salts, sun screen, foot scrubs and other high-end products sold in pharmacies and department stores (Source: Codepink National 2009, np link).

[It] has situated its main manufacturing plant and showroom at the Israeli Jewish settlement in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank … Mitzpe Shalem … an illegal settlement (Source: Kricorian 2009, np link).

Code Pink, the women’s peace group famed for head-to-toe pink attire and unabashed disruption of business as usual on Capitol Hill, coalesced in opposition to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to member Nancy Kricorian, Code Pink expanded its mandate to include the occupation of Palestine when it joined the Campaign (End the Israeli Occupation) in 2006 – but the gesture was largely symbolic, as the group’s work remained focused on Afghanistan and Iraq. This quiet engagement became much louder in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, when Code Pink brought Palestine to the front and centre of its agenda, to the dismay of several members and funders (Source: Erakat 2012, np link).

The Stolen Beauty campaign, which began in the aftermath of the brutal Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008-’09, is part of the larger boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that grew out of a 2005 call by a vast swathe of Palestinian civil society groups for BDS against Israel. Modeled on the anti-apartheid movement that targeted South Africa, the Palestinian-led BDS movement demands that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories, implement equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel and recognize the ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees and their descendants who fled or were expelled from Palestine during the1947-’49 Arab-Israeli war (Source: Kane 2010, np link).

AHAVA CEO – Yaakov Ellis: [CODEPINK] Claim – ‘Ahava uses in its products mud excavated in an occupied area, and thus it exploits occupied natural resources for profit, which is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.’ Facts: – The mud and minerals used in Ahava’s cosmetic products are not excavated in an occupied area. The minerals are mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally. – The mining area and operation are limited in scope, and in no way affect or hinder any future use of minerals from the Dead Sea, or causes any permanent harm to the environment or to the area’s natural resources. Claim – ‘The presence in Mitzpe Shalem creates a lot of problems for the Palestinians that live there.’ Facts: – Ahava does not interfere with the Palestinian population. Mitzpe Shalem is situated in an unpopulated area in undisputed territory in the Judea Desert, and there are no Palestinians residing in the vicinity of Mitzpe Shalem. – The presence and activities of Ahava at the Mitzpe Shalem facility has not been cited in any complaint by any legitimate representative of the Palestinian population and does not violate any rights of any peoples. Claim – ‘Ahava’s products are produced in the illegal settlement of MitzpeShalem.’ Facts: – Mitzpe Shalem is not an illegal settlement. Ahava’s manufacturing facility is located at Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, on the North‐Western shore of the Dead Sea, just 6 miles north of the “Green Line”, within the area usually referred as the West Bank. – Ahava’s use of the Mitzpe Shalem facility is legal and does not violate any provision of International Law, especially as there is no recognized right of any peoples other than Israel to the West Bank (Source: Ellis 2010, np link).

After a Washington, D.C.-based group protested in July 2010 against Ahava products being sold in Ulta, a beauty store, the Jewish Community Relations Committee of Greater Washington urged supporters to buy Ahava products. Brooklyn’s Ricky’s shop has also become the epicenter of a dispute over the Boycott Ahava movement. After a July 9 protest outside the store led by CodePink’s Stolen Beauty and Brooklyn for Peace, which signed onto the campaign in May, a group of rabbis in Brooklyn drafted a letter in response, urging people to buy Ahava products and denouncing the campaign. The rabbis’ letter claimed that ‘CodePink ignores the history and legal status of Mizpeh Shalom’ because it is located in ‘‘Area C’, a huge section of the West Bank over which Israel, again by joint agreement, was granted full control, except over Palestinian civilians.’ (The Area C designation comes out of the 1993-era Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Area C incorporates all West Bank settlements.) ‘Local Jewish leaders find the idea of a boycott of Israel to be a misguided and one-sided approach to a complex and deeply troubling conflict,’ said Rabbi Andy Bachman, a signatory to the letter and a member of the liberal group J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet. ‘The problem with a boycott is there’s one side that’s all right and another side that’s all wrong. If that’s what the boycotters think, then there really is nothing to discuss. But if not, then why not boycott Palestinian business for years of rejecting peace accords?’ So far, Ricky’s has not budged, and continues to sell Ahava products. Dominick Costello, the president of the store, refused to comment (Source: Kane 2010, np link).

A call to boycott Israeli-made Ahava products in a Maryland beauty supply store backfired last week when pro- Israel activists countered by purchasing the shop’s entire Ahava inventory.When the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington found out that the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel DC had organized a protest and boycott call at Ulta in Silver Spring last Saturday, the organization sent out an action alert urging supporters to visit the store and buy Ahava. ‘They cleaned the shelves out. It was the best Ahava sales weekend the store has ever seen. They had to order an expedited shipment’ afterward, said Arielle Farber, director of Israel and International Affairs for the Community Relations Council. ‘The greater Washington community is not going to stand for this campaign to delegitimize Israel’ (Source: Krieger 2010, np link).

On Wednesday, May 11 and Thursday, May 12 [2011] , Ahava US, the U.S. arm of the Israeli cosmetics firm based in an illegal West Bank settlement, and @birchbox, an online cosmetics retailer, ran a marketing contest on the social media site Twitter using the hashtag #AhavaReborn, which is the slogan for Ahava’s current rebranding campaign. Members of the public were invited to submit beauty care questions with the lure of a prize of $300 worth of Ahava products for the best query. US group CODEPINK Women for Peace, which manages the Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott campaign, alerted other BDS activists about the marketing campaign and suggested using the opportunity for a culture jam to subvert Ahava’s rebranding effort.As people who hoped for the prize tweeted #AhavaReborn with their beauty questions about cracked heels, blemishes and dry skin, BDS campaigners used ready-made Tweets that CODEPINK had sent out. But quickly the culture jammers began inventing their own original tweets and even started responding to actual contestants with personal messages and tips – all of them around why consumers should avoid Ahava products. Many of the BDS campaigners’ questions for @birchbox and Ahava were highly amusing, and all of them highlighted Ahava’s complicity in Israel’s illegal Occupation. Throughout the 48 hours, BDS campaigners also posted tweets with links to the Stolen Beauty website for background information on Ahava for those who wanted to know more … BDS campaigners excelled at using creativity and biting wit to get their messages across in a few words … The two days were a victory for BDS campaigners who took the opportunity provided by Ahava’s rebranding attempt through social media and turned it into a platform for BDS messaging (Source: Horowitz 2011, np link).

Abigail Disney, a descendant of one of the Disney Company founders, said Monday that she is renouncing her share of the family’s profits in the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava, saying it is engaged in the ‘exploitation of occupied natural resources’ (Source: Hass 2012, np link).

In November 2009, the Dutch Foreign Ministry agreed to investigate Ahava’s manufacturing and labelling practices. Costco, a large U.S. retailer, was pressured into halting the sale of Ahava products at its stores in January 2010 (Source: Kane 2010, np link).

Protesters managed to force the closure of Ahava’s flagship London store in 2011 and John Lewis has ceased stocking the range, leaving PB as the main vehicle for Ahava products in Britain. Activists have pledged to target PB’s main trade fair in London next February (Source: Lazen 2012, np).

[The campaign’s] most significant victory came with the news that the governments of South Africa and Denmark would no longer label imports from Israeli settlements as ‘Made in Israel‘ (Source: Miller 2012, np link).