http://vimeo.com/album/ 1705915/video/110238952

Two victories on the BDS front that show the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are increasingly considered beyond the pale in the U.S. and international community.

First, the online shopping site GILT has dropped Ahava cosmetics which is made in the illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem. GILT is a leading shopping website with over six million members, and the move comes following a correspondence between Code Pink and the office of GILT President Kevin P. Ryan, who also serves on the board of Human Rights Watch.

CodePink has published the correspondence which is somewhat entertaining. Code Pink begins:

31 July 2014 Kevin P. Ryan

Founder and Chairman

GILT

2 Park Avenue, 4th Floor

New York, New York 10016 Dear Kevin Ryan, I’m writing to you today on behalf of an international boycott campaign against Ahava cosmetics, an Israeli enterprise that has its main production facility in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. We believe there is a contradiction between your role as the Chairman of Gilt, an online retailer that sells Ahava products, and your serving as a Board member of Human Rights Watch, an organization that has taken an explicit stand against Israeli settlement profiteering. For the past four years, Ahava has served as an international poster child for the evils of illegall settlement goods . It is on the boycott list of the United Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church , and The United Church of Canada. In 2012 Abigail Disney renounced her share of her company’s investment in Ahava because of the company’s violations of international law We believe that Gilt should stop carrying Ahava cosmetics because an association with a company that makes its goods using pillaged resources in a factory on occupied land is unethical and ugly. Would love to speak with you about this issue. Sincerely, Nancy Kricorian

Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott Campaign Manager

GILT responded with a cursory response from its legal department saying, “We have been in contact with Ahava and they have assured us that they are operating within the confines of the law.”

Code Pink responded in part:

In your letter dated 12 August 2014, you state, “We have been in contact with Ahava and they have assured us that they are operating within the confines of the law.” I am still astonished by this response. It is akin to saying, “We have asked the alleged thief if he had stolen the property, and he assured us that he had not.” Ahava’s violations of international law have been documented by Who Profits, an Israeli research group that focuses on occupation profiteers by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization; and by Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization. Indeed, retailers around the world have decided to drop Ahava products, and investor Abigail Disney has disavowed her share in her family’s Ahava holdings, having taken the small effort to acquaint herself with Ahava’s illegal practices. We are further perplexed by how Mr. Ryan can reconcile his position as a board member of Human Rights Watch, an organization that has taken a stand against Israeli settlements and those profiting from them, with his company’s selling goods from Ahava, which is the international poster child for the evils of settlement profiteering. This obvious contradiction is clearly a legitimate subject of public interest and discussion.

Ahava disappeared from the GILT store following this letter.

Also, the BDS movement has sent out a press release announcing the Kuwaiti government’s decision to “not deal with 50 companies due to their role in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.” These companies include many of the BDS movement’s primary targets such as Volvo, Heidelberg Cement, Dexia, Pizzarotti, Alstom and Veolia.

From the BDS movement press release: