Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)
Showing posts with label Lush UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lush UK. Show all posts

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Protest Against Lush Cosmetics (video)

Lush might be a soap company, but as is probably well-known by now, it's been engaging in something very grubby. I've made several posts on the subject, starting with the one here

It's great to see these Californians taking a principled stand, in view of Lush's demonisation of Israel.  And as the uploader of the video points out on YouTube, there's hypocrisy and double standards involved in Lush's despicable campaign against Israel:
"They set up shop in countries where it is illegal for women to drive a car (Saudi Arabia) and where being gay faces a death penalty. It asks for you to support the PLO, who has asked for death to Israel and everyone it it, that includes Jews, Muslims, Christians.
 But it seems to think that the only point to get on a high horse about is Israel, and ignore Syrian, Libyan, Iranian, Egytian slaughtering of people for protesting."
Indeed, and isn't the latter stance the usual practice of the anti-Israel brigade, when all is said and done?


Read more here

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Gonna fLUSH Those Lies Right Outta Their Lair

As I mentioned in June,  the high street chain Lush Cosmetics is running an anti-Israel campaign on its website:
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-lush-its-green-and-its-frothing.html
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/06/lush-soap-opera.html

The company has opened a new store in the large Outer London shopping centre Brent Cross, as reported by Richard Millett on his blog: http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/anti-israel-lush-opens-in-brent-cross/

The Lush website contains a number of falsehoods concerning Israel and the Palestinian Arabs:
http://www.lush.co.uk/articles/our-ethical-campaigns/oneworld_100-10285_10.html

As the UK Zionist Federation observes, it would be worth refuting some of these, in complainants' own words.  As mentioned in the second of my two posts cited above, blogger Edgar Davidson contacted the company as soon as he became aware of its mischief, and his example is worth following.

For instance, Lush claims: “Israel’s siege of Gaza has condemned its 1.5 million inhabitants to levels of poverty more commonly associated with sub-Saharan Africa – a humanitarian disaster with no end in sight.”

In fact, as recently as April this year he International Committee of the Red Cross declared that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza http://www.haretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/red-cross-official-gaza-isn-t-experiencing-a-humanitarian-crisis-1.357268

As with any population, Gazans form a mixed socio-economic group, and while there are undenianly poor people there, the more affluent are also very much in evidence, as witness the shopping malls that have been recently opened, where luxury goods are among the merchandise. http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/biggest-mall-in-gaza-strip-opens-its-doors-1.840744

Food and other provisions are plentiful at the markets, and thousands of tons of supplies are conveyed into Gaza from Israel weekly:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/HumanitarianAid/Palestinians/Humanitarian_and_Civilian_activities_towards_Gaza_Strip_June_monthly_report_2011.htm

As for the West Bank, it receives the second highest amount of economic aid in the world:
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/we-west-bank/eco-economy
 In fact, the West Bank economy is one of the fastest-growing economies anywhere on earth.

It will come as a surprise to Lush, but the life expectancy of the average Gazan is longer than that of the average Glaswegian:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/health/factcheck+glasgow+worse+than+gaza/2320267.html

The Lush website notes:“A third generation of Palestinian children is now being brought up in refugee camps inside and outside Palestine”.

Surely it should be pointed out to the company that the Arab nations have done nothing to help these people, who they have cynically used as pawns for the past 60-odd years. Perhaps Lush could direct its indignation at the Arab governments, and suggest to them that they help the children whose plight they so unfairly lay at Israel's door.  Whereas Israel successfully integrated the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees made homeless by Arab states, the far richer Arab regimes made no effort to integrate the Arabs who left Palestine.

And then, trotted out on the Lush website is the familiar trope “All the above actions are illegal under International Law”

They should be informed that (unlike Hamas, which has never permitted the Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit and which  terrorises its own people) Israel adheres fully to the tenets of the Geneva Convention.
Perhaps Lush can be asked why it fails to demand that Hamas cease its persecution of gays, its increasing repression of women, and its habit of firing Qassams at civilian targets inside Israel.  Needless to say, Lush is unconcerned  with the fact that the Hamas Charter that calls for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of Jews wherever they live.

Lush should also be informed that far from being a counterpart to Apartheid South Africa, as insisted by the One World campaign that Lush promotes, Israel’s minorities enjoy more rights than do the mass of citizens elsewhere in the region who are clamouring for democracy, the form of government that has prevailed in Israel since its foundation in 1948. Israel, Lush should be informed, was the first country in the Middle East in which Arab women were able to vote; there are Arab members of the Knesset; an Arab sits on the Israeli Supreme Court, and if they wish Arab citizens of Israel can serve in the IDF.

Moreover, there is complete freedom of worship in Israel, and the Bahai, so terribly maltreated in Iran where the Bahai faith began, have their world headquarters in Haifa.

How to Contact Lush:

Chief Executive and Founder:
Mark Constantine
18-20 Market Street
Poole
Dorset BH15 1NF

Lush Press Office:
Tel: 020 7434 3948
Email: sean.gifford@lush.co.uk

Customer Care
18-20 Market Street
Poole
Dorset BH15 1NF
Tel: 01202 641 006
customercare@lush.co.uk

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Lush: The Soap Opera ...

Remember my post about soap and cosmetics company Lush's contribution to the Israel-demonising cause, with its spruiking that OneWorld song? http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-lush-its-green-and-its-frothing.html

Well, the doughty and cerebral pro-Israel blogger Edgar Davidson wasted no time in complaining to the company about its stance: http://edgar1981.blogspot.com/2011/06/lush-pushing-death-to-israel-narrative.html

Promptly, a representative of the company responded, blaming "the wall" for the Palestinians' plight and observing, inter alia:
"History does not excuse such suffering. It will take both sides to come to a solution, but what is also clear is that this is not a conflict of two equal sides and thus the onus must be on the dominating force, Israel."
Again wasting no time,  Edgar Davidson has written back with a polite but firm dissection of the representative's reply.

Here's part of his response:
"Finally, I now see that the previous  lies about poverty have been replaced with  
 “life for most Palestinians living under the illegal Israeli occupation is at least as bad as that endured by black South Africans in the bad old days of apartheid.” 
This is even more incorrect and offensive than the original statement. The West Bank is officially “disputed territory” not “illegally occupied” and the “apartheid” analogy is bizarre in this context. It would be just as meaningful to say that poverty levels in Glasgow are at apartheid levels.
 Clearly the statement was intended to promote, indirectly, the false notion of Israel as an apartheid state.  There are certainly several apartheid states in the area but Israel is not one of them. The Apartheid states are all Arab: a total of 0 Jews live in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority areas, 0 Jews live in Jordan and Saudi Arabia (where in both countries it is illegal to be a citizen if you are a Jew) and less than a handful of Jews live in all of the other Arab countries combined. Less than 60 years ago those Arab countries had thriving communities of Jews totally some 1,000,000.  They have all been driven out. But, of course you never heard their narrative did you?"

Sunday, 12 June 2011

It's Lush, It's Green - And It's Frothing Against Israel

It's lush and green - like this park in Gaza (all these photos are of Gaza, as will be obvious at a glance, since they depict the misery and squalor that characterise  that famous teeming  "open prison," right?)

But it's not the park I refer to - it's a soap and cosmetics company in the UK called Lush, which  has retail outlets in various parts of the country.  Lush, which also operates elsewhere, prides itself on its ethical approach to current issues of all sorts - animal, vegetable, and mineral.

And as far as many of them are concerned, I find them hard to fault.  After all, well ahead of the trend, I became a vegetarian when a nipper.  (Yep - I've stayed one ever since.)

On political issues Lush has advocated some rather extreme leftist platforms (for instance on immigration) that reflect the Green Party.

And now it's firmly fixed its colours to the Palestinian mast with a statement on its website that says:

"This month we have the exciting opportunity to help secure a UK chart position for a song called ‘Freedom for Palestine’ by a collective of musicians called OneWorld. The aim of the song is to raise awareness of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the resulting poverty and other human rights abuses....
The catastrophe facing the Palestinian people is one of the defining global justice issues of our time. A third generation of Palestinian children is now being brought up in refugee camps inside and outside Palestine, living in chronic poverty and denied the right to return to their family homes. Hundreds of thousands more Palestinians suffer discrimination over access to public services, land rights and employment within Israel itself. For those living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the situation is critical. Israel's siege of Gaza has condemned its 1.5 million inhabitants to levels of poverty more commonly associated with sub-Saharan Africa - a humanitarian disaster with no end in sight. 
All the above actions are illegal under international law. Yet no Western government has been willing to call Israel to account for its crimes. Instead, the US, UK and other governments have consistently rewarded Israeli aggression with economic benefits and closer political ties. This is why it is up to ordinary people around the world to take action."
It goes on to explain:
"If OneWorld are successful at getting the song in the charts, the mainstream media will find it hard to ignore it or censor its message. This will raise awareness and help to give confidence to people to speak up for Palestine. And it would send a message to the UK government, and all those who lend economic support or political cover to Israel that a critical mass of people want to see an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the oppression of its people."
http://www.lush.co.uk/articles/our-ethical-campaigns/oneworld_100-10285_10.html

Predictably, Israel-delegitimising groups are crowing on their websites about Lush and its pimping this song.

Aussie political blogger Andrew Landeryou has some forthright criticisms of both Lush, its statements regarding the "occupation of Palestine," and the song's lyrics, which he reproduced as follows (emphasis his):

So many years of catastrophe, more than six million refugees, it could be you and your family,
Forced from your home and your history

We are the people, and this is our time, 
Stand up, sing out, for Palestine
No matter your faith or community, this is a crime against humanity,
Gaza turned into a prison camp, apartheid wall divides the West Bank

We are the people, and this is our time, 
Stand up, sing out, for Palestine,
We’ll break down the wall, Freedom for Palestine
Demand Justice for all, Freedom For Palestine 

Enough illegal occupation, violence and racial segregation, all religious communities unite,
Freedom is a human right,
We are the people, and this is our time, 
Stand up, sing out, for Palestine,
We’ll break down the wall, Freedom for Palestine
Demand Justice for all, Freedom For Palestine

(solo on the Oud) (rap section)
We are the people, and this is our time, 
Stand up, sing out, for Palestine,
We’ll break down the wall, Freedom for Palestine
Demand Justice for all, Freedom For Palestine(repeat X5)
We are the people, this is our time, unite together, for justice in Palestine.


Read all his piece here: http://www.vexnews.com/news/13550/dirty-business-lush-rubs-up-the-wrong-way-over-israel-hating/

Update And see Edgar Davidson's reply from Lush in response to his complaint: http://edgar1981.blogspot.com/2011/06/response-from-lush-it-gets-worse.html