NEW YORK - July 21 - 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.
