Posted by CODEPINK Staff
Jezebel.com just posted a photo and info from CODEPINK's Ahava action in DC yesterday -- here. The comments are all over the place, some supportive, some wondering why we're wearing bikinis (just for attention? because we can?), and some just wondering what we're doing.
To explain a bit: the demonstration was part of CODEPINK's new campaign, Stolen Beauty, a boycott of the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava, which illegally harvests the minerals for its products from the Dead Sea of the Occupied Territory of the Palestinian West Bank. It's the fifth of four similar demonstrations of the past few months, in Las Vegas, NYC's Central Park, Santa Monica and Tel Aviv (check out photos and news reports at the campaign site, www.stolenbeauty.org). The campaign is a part of the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to create economic pressure on Israel (and the U.S.) to end its occupation and apartheid of Palestine. Our goal to inspire people to boycott the company, draw attention to Israel's illegal occupation of the Occupied Territory of the Palestinian West Bank and demand an end to the occupation.
The purpose of wearing bikinis is two-fold: one, to play on the fact that Ahava harvests minerals from the Dead Sea, a super popular beach destination, and women use the products on their skin all over their bodies; two, to symbolize the fact that our exposure, and uncovering, represents what we're trying to do to Ahava -- to expose and uncover the dirty truth of their illegal practices.
