‘Israel is ours’– Dermer’s settlement gift puts spotlight on Ahava

The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign continues to put pressure on Israel and rack up victories– the latest being a vicious attack and an acknowledgment of the campaign’s impact.

Last week, you may remember, the Israeli ambassador to the United States put his thumb in the president’s eye: Ron Dermer sent out a holiday gift package (left) of exclusively settlement goods. Tablet reports that one product in the package is from beauty-products seller Ahava. And the publicity is surely unwelcome. It just confirms to the world that Ahava mines stolen land in the West Bank to make its skin-care treatments.

Now Ahava has posted an article in the Jerusalem Post titled “Ahava and BDS” that is extremely defensive on that score. The unnamed author cites the usual propaganda:

Israelis are known for their innovation; for making scientific breakthroughs that allow patients to heal and deserts to blossom…

Then gets very upset about BDS, and the pressure brought to Ahava by the good people of Code Pink, the “Stolen Beauty” project.

Unfortunately, a broad educational program, ethical, green practice and an all-natural approach to skincare aren’t enough to keep everybody happy. On a daily basis, the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement is encouraging people to leave Israeli products sitting on shelves, and Israeli produce rotting in baskets. A particularly virulent section of the campaign called CODEPINK and their noxious offshoot stolenbeauty.org, has chosen to specifically target AHAVA.

Before declaring that BDS is malevolent and Israel is ours:

I believe that they – the BDS movement and its malevolent followers – are wrong. I believe that Israel is ours, and that we should be using its incredible natural resources to build our economy and make it thrive. I am proud to be Israeli, and proud of what Israel creates: that’s why I am imploring you to fight BDS this winter. I’m on a mission to flip BDS on its head, and turn Boycott, Divest and Sanction into Buy, Develop and Support!

The only way to turn it round is to Think BIG – Buy Israeli Goods.

Virulent and noxious; that’s smashmouth politics. Israelis are losing world opinion on this settlement stuff, and so they are reduced to rage and nationalism.

And we just got this from the Hebrew press. At the Jewish new year in September, the business site Calcalist (a branch of the leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth) published in Hebrew a list of the 100 most influential figures on Israel’s economy in 2015– and it put Omar Barghouti, a leader of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, at Number 39. We just got the link yesterday.

Barghouti’s name is under the category, “Eagles of the Levant.” When you click on that category and then click on his name, it takes you to a long article on the achievement of BDS, not Barghouti as such. But it’s a reminder that BDS is having economic impact.