GUEST: Dalit Baum, co-founder of Who Profits from the Occupation, a research initiative of the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel, speaks to us about using boycotts to win human rights.
I got to know Dalit when she posted the following to a BDS website. That was lucky for the listeners of Activist Radio, as she turned out to be a wonderful guest.Dear Fred
As you might know, we have a 5-year research project in Israel called "who Profits" www.whoprofits.org - where we publish a database of companies involved in the occupation. We have a complete mapping of all settlement products and we have put a lot of effort into investigating dead sea products such as Ahava. It is crucial for our work to be very precise with our facts, and not to fall into exaggerations and all sorts of false information on the web, which can discredit our campaigns.
Check out our new whoprofits website:
http://www.whoprofits.org/company/ahava-dead-sea-laboratories
On your website I see this quote: "CVS should stop selling Ahava, as well as other products made in Israel's illegal settlements. These include L'Oreal's Natural Sea Beauty, Dead Sea Salt Foot Soak, and Swisa Beauty Esensuals." This is not precise. Of these, only Ahava is a settlement product, it is produced in a settlement and partially owned by two settlements. Also, the mud they sell (as mud, not extracts) is excavated in the occupied area, in contradiction with international law (forbidding pillage of natural resources). The dead sea minerals used by Ahava as well as by other companies are excavated in the south of the dead sea by Dead Sea Works, which is officially in 1948 Israel.
I would also encourage you to look for sales of SodaStream http://www.globalexchange.org/sodastream in your area, as it seems that they are gaining momentum in the US. This is also a settlement product, and now, for the first time, the is a cheap alternative we can offer to this product. See where they sell near you: http://www.sodastreamusa.com/where_to_buy.aspx
Good luck in all and let me know if you need anything... Dalit
