Thursday, 10 September 2009 8 - 9.30 a.m.
Exit of the subway station, Vienna International Centre, Kaisermühlendamm (use first car)
(Dark or black clothing appreciated. No banners, please. Punctuality greatly appreciated. )
Flyer:
STOLEN BEAUTY
Don’t buy goods from stolen lands!
Boycott Ahava Dead Sea Cosmetics sold in the VIC Commissary!
Don’t let yourself be ‘soothed and smoothed’ by Ahava’s creams and cosmetics! Why? Because they are produced by a firm complicit in the theft of Palestinian land and livelihoods.
Ahava is an Israeli company with a factory and visitor centre in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement near the Dead Sea. This is one of the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Since 1967 Israel has moved almost half a million settlers into the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, flouting international law and dozens of United Nations Resolutions and forcing Palestinians off their land.
Ahava products are sold at its store in London and by a range of companies in shops around Great Britain and in other countries, including Austria.
Companies like Ahava profit from the Israeli occupation and Israel’s settlements, which are a major obstacle to a just and peaceful solution to the conflict.
As United Nations employees can you really go against the Resolutions of your organization? Therefore: boycott Ahava!
Support the call to ban illegal Israeli settlement produce!
Why does this matter to you as an ethical shopper?
- Palestinian farmers have lost over 40% of the West Bank to illegal settlements.
- Palestinian workers in the settlements are exploited and child labour is used.
- Scarce water resources are often confiscated by Israel and used for the houses of settlers and their swimming pools and to irrigate settlement produce for export abroad whilst Palestinian farmers are losing their crops through lack of land and water.
- Settlements harshly obstruct the daily lives of the Palestinian people. Movement is restricted through Apartheid system of separate roads, hundreds of checkpoints and the illegal Apartheid Wall. Palestinians face violence daily from armed settlers.
- Palestinian producers face huge difficulties to reach export markets - and are even prevented to do so - while Israeli illegal settlement produce easily reaches its destination.
- Palestinians in Gaza have suffered death, destruction and war crimes from Israeli attacks. They face humanitarian catastrophe; over 80% are dependent on food aid under the siege imposed by Israel.
- Ahava fraudulently benefits from customs duty exemptions under the EU-Israel Trade Agreement – by labelling its settlement produce as coming from Israel.
This call for a ban on illegal settlement produce is part of a vast campaign to boycott all Israeli goods until Israel abides by international law and respects human rights.