Category: Press Releases

Ahava’s theft of occupied natural resources finally exposed

21 May 2011 | Jordan Valley Solidarity

Protesters outside Ahava, London
After years of strenuous denial, Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli cosmetics firm with its main manufacturing plant in an illegal West Bank settlement, is proven by documentary evidence to be in violation of international law through its theft of Palestinian resources. This evidence was recently discovered by Who Profits, a research project of the Israeli Coalition for Peace, which documents corporate activity in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory.

Prior to this finding representatives of Ahava repeatedly claimed that the company does not make use of natural resources from the West Bank: “the mud and materials used in Ahava cosmetics products are not excavated in an occupied area. The mud is mined in the Israeli part of the Dead Sea, which is undisputed internationally”. The new findings prove that the company was given a license for excavating minerals in 2004 from the Israeli Civil Administration, which is the representative of the Israeli government in the Occupied West Bank, and that the excavation site on the occupied shores of the Northern Dead Sea is currently active. By making use of mud that is excavated in the occupied area the company is violating international humanitarian law (the laws of occupation), which prohibits the plundering of natural resources from the occupied territory. Merav Amir, Coordinator of Who Profits, said, “Ahava can no longer continue misleading consumers about where they get the mud used in their products. This mud is from the Occupied West Bank and is stolen from the Palestinian people.”

Nancy Kricorian, the manager for CODEPINK’s Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott (www.stolenbeauty.org), an international campaign against the company’s violations of international law, said, “Ahava’s CEO has been circulating a letter to retailers that we thought was filled with lies, and now Who Profits has provided us with the evidence to prove it.”

The company is still reeling from the public relations setback of an explosive new report issued on May 5th by B’tselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, which calls Ahava out by name as an occupation profiteer. Ahava representatives have yet to respond to B’tselem’s report, and the company’s reputation is now further tarnished by this just discovered documentary proof of its violations of international law.

Spirit of Rachel Corrie attacked by Israeli navy

16 May 2011 | Perdana 4 Peace

(Monday)
The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission, involving a Malaysian owned ship carrying aid for Palestine, has been intercepted and attacked by the Israeli naval forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 0654 Jordan time. Currently the ship has been forced to anchor in the Egyptian waters at one and a half nautical miles from the Gazan waters.

The vessel left the Port of Piraeus, Greece on Wednesday, May 11 carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza.

The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) and participating in this mission includes anti-war activists and journalists, consisting of 7 Malaysians, 2 Irish, 2 Indians and 1 Canadian.

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Reproduced below is the transmission by Matthias Chang onboard the ship ‘The Spirit of Rachel Corrie’ to Perdana during the attack.

16/5/2011

From Matthias Chang, Mission Leader Onboard The Spirit of Rachel Corrie – Mission to Gaza

10:54am KL, Gaza 5:54am:
We have been intercepted by Israeli ship and Egyptian ship.
We are disobeying the orders and sailing ahead to Gaza.

10:57am KL, Gaza 5:57am:
One Israeli warship coming to us very fast!
We are in international waters, therefore they have no right to attack us.
We are still sailing ahead.

10:59am KL, Gaza 5:59am:
They are opening fire across our ship!
We are still sailing ahead.

11:09am KL, Gaza 6:09am:
They are shooting all over the place.
We can’t continue …

11:35am KL, Gaza 6:35am:
They circled our ship twice and fired across our ship. Machine guns.
No one was injured.
One of the fishing nets caught the propeller, so we can’t move now.

11:37am KL, Gaza 6:37am (Derek Graham):
The Israeli ship was coming from one end and the Egyptian ship was coming from another end.
Firing.
We are just stalled now.
Everybody is okay.
No one is injured.

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About PGPF
The Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), formerly Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO), is a first but resolute step in the arduous journey towards global peace, moves towards the single goal of putting an end to war. Its founder, YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, envisages “a serious, active and sustained struggle against war and for peace”. Sharing and supporting this agenda are world-prominent professionals, intellectuals, authors, statesmen – all passionate advocates of international peace. Together, they have signed the Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War.

Former IDF spokesperson and Southern Brigade Commander to testify final court hearing of Corrie civil trial on May 22

17 May 2011 | Rachel Corrie Foundation

Former IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Ruth Yaron and former Southern Brigade Commander, Colonel Pinhas (Pinky) Zuaretz are both scheduled to testify on May 22 in what is anticipated to be the final hearing in the Corrie family’s civil lawsuit against the State of Israel.

The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by Attorney Hussein abu Hussein, charges the Israeli government and Ministry of Defense with responsibility for killing American peace activist Rachel Corrie in Rafah, Gaza in 2003. Since the trial opened in March 2010, nearly 2000 pages of court transcripts have been recorded, from more than 20 testimonies, including that of 14 military personnel. Most government witnesses were identified only by their initials, and nearly half testified while hidden behind a screen.

Brigadier General Yaron served as the Israeli Military’s spokesperson from 2002-2005. Her testimony will focus on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), an organization committed to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands using non-violent methods. Rachel was protesting against civilian home demolitions, as part of ISM, when she was run over and killed by an Israeli military D9R bulldozer.

Colonel Zuaretz was the commanding officer of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade at the time, and the bulldozer units were under his command. Zuaretz is the highest ranking officer called as a government witness in the trial, and possibly, the highest ranking military officer ever to face cross examination in a civil suit for the actions of the Israeli military against civilians in Gaza during the second intifada. His testimony is expected to shed light on the Israeli military’s failure to protect civilian life and property in the region.

“The final State witnesses attack Rachel’s right to non-violently protest in defense of her Palestinian friends, their home, and their family,” said Craig Corrie, Rachel’s father. “I have seen the wholesale destruction of the civilian neighborhood the IDF calls a military zone. Rachel not only had the legitimate right to protest against massive home demolitions, she had a moral obligation to stand with this family in the face of the Israeli military actions and threats which violated the bedrock legal obligation to protect civilians and their property.”

The hearing is scheduled to take place Sunday, May 22, from 9:00 – 16:00 in the courtroom of Judge Oded Gershon, 6th floor, Haifa District Court, 12 Palyam St., Haifa, Israel.

Please visit the Trial Update page of the Rachel Corrie Foundation website for updates, changes to the court schedule, and related information.

CPT: Rampaging Israeli settlers invade Palestinian village of Tuba

16 May 2011 | Christian Peacemaker Team

(Tuba, South Hebron Hills, West Bank) Late last night, Israeli settlers invaded the village of Tuba, damaged property, and killed and stole several sheep belonging to the Ali Awad family. Palestinians of Tuba reported that they counted seven masked settlers, who entered and left the village on foot, and saw two cars at the outskirts of Tuba, near the chicken barns of Ma’on settlement.

The rampaging settlers stole seven sheep, killed two, and injured others, including one which lost an eye. In addition, the settlers upended three water tanks, which held a total of 4.5 cubic meters of water. They destroyed fences, punctured a storage tent and three large sacks of yogurt, damaged a goat pen and destroyed the ventilation pipe of an outhouse. They also set loose a donkey, which later returned.

Around midnight on Sunday 15 May, internationals from Christian Peacemaker Teams received a call from a Tuba resident to report the settler invasion and request help in urging the Israeli police to come to Tuba. The police refused to go to the village because no one there could speak to them in Hebrew. Two Israeli soldiers arrived in Tuba on Monday morning, but did not speak Arabic and so could not communicate with the villagers.

The Ali Awad family is considering making a complaint to the Israeli police, despite the fact that all their previous complaints about settler attacks, vandalism or harassment have not yet resulted in any indictments or compensation. On 21 March 2011, a masked settler from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on stabbed Mahmoud Ibrahim Ali Awad as the Palestinian traveled by donkey from Tuba to the city of Yatta. Mahmoud Ali Awad spent a week in the hospital recovering from stab wounds on his chest and arm.

Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Israeli forces violently arrest demonstrators in al-Walaja

15 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

At 11 AM on al-Nakba remembrance day, 500 residents from the West Bank village of al-Wallajeh and international supporters marched towards the Israeli Apartheid Wall. The Wall was built to separate the villagers from their original land from which they were expelled in 1948. The demonstration was violently attacked by the Israeli military with rubber coated steal bullets, tear gas and protesters were beaten
with batons and rifles. One youth was hospitalized after being injured by a rubber coated steal bullet .

Eight Palestinians including twins aged 11 and 6 internationals (American, Dutch, German and Canadian nationals) were arrested. The army proceeded to raid the village and invade each house, searching for people who had participated in the demonstrations. The raids as well as confrontations between the army and the village youth are ongoing.

The Arrested Palestinans are:
Mazen Qumsiyah
Basel Al Araj
Ahmed Al Araj
Mohammad Al Araj
Allah And Mohammed Abu Tin 11 year old twins
Tarek Abu Tin
Adel Abu Tin

Al-Walaja is an agrarian village of about 2,000 people, located south of Jerusalem and West of Bethlehem. Following the 1967 Occupation of the West Bank and the redrawing of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, roughly half the village was annexed by Israel and included in the Jerusalem municipal area. The village’s residents, however did not receive Israeli residency or citizenship, and are considered illegal in their own homes.

Once completed, the path of the Wall is designed to encircle the village’s built-up area entirely, separating the residents from Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and almost all their lands – roughly 5,000 dunams. Previously, Israeli authorities have already confiscated approximately half of the village’s lands for the building of the Har Gilo and Gilo settlements, and closed off areas to the south and west of it. The town’s inhabitants have also experienced the cutting down of fruit orchards and house demolition due to the absence of building permits in Area C.

According to a military confiscation order handed to the villagers, the path of the Wall will stretch over 4890 meters between Beit Jala and al-Walaja, affecting 35 families, whose homes may be slated for demolition.