The Last Exile

Code Pink strikes again and brings mudslinging to an entirely new level with a call for a boycott of Ahava beauty products. Ynet News:

Dozens of women in bikinis protested Wednesday near Washington cosmetics stores against the purchase of Ahava beauty products, that are produced in the Israeli settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank. The protest was initiated by the American Code Pink anti-war movement, and the demonstrators’ bodies were streaked with mud, some featuring the words “Ahava is a dirty business”. Code Pink alleges that the Israeli cosmetics company that promises to share the “beauty secrets from the Dead Sea” is also “hiding the ugly truth—its products actually come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the occupied territory of the Palestinian West Bank, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem.”

The movement launched its “Stolen Beauty” boycott campaign against international company, which exports to 25 countries around the world, last month. “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 Paris Marron, CODEPINK’s national online organizer. “We call on Ahava to come clean.” Rae Abileah, a member of the movement who took part in the protest, said they are leading an international campaign against the company’s products, in protest of their production in the “occupied Palestinian territory”. She said they had entered cosmetics stores and handed the managers letters with factual information on Ahava’s production process, and demanded they stop selling these products, since it is against the Geneva Convention.

I really don’t know how effective this boycott will be considering most women who would use Ahava have so little in common with Code Pink. Coincidentally, the Last Amazon just happened to return from university with a whole stash of Ahava products. I rather like the body milk and just on principle alone; I will now have to re-stock for her return to university in September.