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‘LA Times’ runs piece by investor in Occupation without disclosing his interest

Weiss got a queasy feeling about a piece in the LA Times attacking the Orthodox for intolerance but saying nary a word about treatment of the Palestinians. Nancy Kricorian of Code Pink exposes the black heart of the matter in a letter the LA Times has not published:

In his op-ed essay, “Will the Ultra-Orthodox Hold Israel Back?” , Stanley Gold appeals to Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which states that Israel must ensure "complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex, " to sound a warning about the growing menace of ultra-orthodox Jewish fundamentalism to Israel’s secular and reform Jewish citizens. Yet in an article focused on minorities and making Israel "a just nation," Mr. Gold makes not a single mention of Palestinian citizens of Israel, 20% of Israel’s population, nor of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation

It is ironic that Mr. Gold, as president and CEO of Shamrock Holdings, oversees a major investment in Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, a corporation that has its main manufacturing plant in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Ahava illegally exploits captured resources of the Dead Sea shore in the Occupied West Bank for use in its products, a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.. And to make matters worse, Ahava misleadingly labels those products as “ Made in Israel,” a practice that has been repeatedly decried by human rights groups such as Oxfam. Shamrock owns 18% of Ahava. Mr. Gold would sound a more persuasive note were he himself not benefiting so mightily from Israel’s continued disregard for human rights.

Discussions of justice in Israel cannot omit Israel’s settlements and its failure to respect Palestinian rights.

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