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A guest post by AKUS
The drumbeat against Israel has finally scored a grim victory in the heart of London with the decision by the landlord of the Ahava store, Shaftesbury PLC, not to renew the store’s lease when it expires. You may think that the description of Britain as the Fourth Reich is over the top, and I imagine there will be those who do, but how else do we describe a decision to move the Jews out of a commercial area in London – not because of what they do, or the problems they create – but because of the disturbance that those who hate them have created?
Let me make it quite clear – I do not distinguish between “Jews” and “Zionists”, or “Jewish” products and “Israeli” products, or products manufactured within the area west of the Green Line that some hooligans have decided shall be Israel’s Eastern border, and those manufactured in a tiny kibbutz in a god-forsaken corner of the Dead Sea where no Arab has lived in millennia. Nor, do I believe, do those demonstrators who scored this pyrrhic victory. They are fueled by the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Britain, which has become a country where significant numbers of people are proud to demonstrate under the banners of Hamas and Hezbollah, two organizations calling for the annihilation of the Jewish citizens of Israel.
Who does not remember picture like this from Hitler’s Germany?
The owner of a store next door expressed his opinion in terms were common currency among some in Germany at that time:
Colin George, manager of clothes shop The Loft, next door to Ahava, said: “I’m pleased Ahava is leaving. It’s brought the street down…Everyone would like them to leave. I wish they had left two years ago….Maybe they should be an online business instead.”
Mr. George hopes those troublesome Jews will just go somewhere else, somewhere out of sight (online), so that the right kind of people, the people Britons do not demonstrate against, can take over their stores. Consider this news item from the Nashua Telegraph, April 1, 1933, with its echo down the decades to April 1, 2011:
Notice how Colin George has shifted the blame for the disruption to his business from those demonstrators who actually disrupted his business to the store and company targeted. He may just be a frustrated small businessman, but blaming the Jewish victim for the actions of their persecutors – the inversion of blame – is a classic feature of institutionalized and internalized anti-Semitism. The demonstrators’ success lies not in the acquiescence of Ahava, but the acquiescence of the store owners next door.
There is a grim lesson here for England. Six years after that picture was taken and that column was written the world was at war. What started with the Jews did not end with the Jews. It never does. Not only were millions of Jews slaughtered in death camps – millions more non-Jews died after the leaders of the world watched and ignored the boycott, closing, and ransacking of Jewish businesses in Germany and Austria. The dead included millions of Germans who were so happy to see the Jews “leaving”, as Mr. George puts it.
Consider this excerpt from Mark Twain’s essay in Harper’s magazine over a century ago – “Concerning the Jews”:
To conclude. – If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent. of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.
He has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.
The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?
Who could have believed that this miserable “triumph” in Seven Dials, this expulsion of a Jewish store orchestrated by this appalling alliance of Islamic extremists, ultra-left wing fanatics, and the naïve and misled, abetted by short-sighted local businesses, so redolent of Nazi triumphs in the 1930’s, now represents the best that Britain can achieve? If Twain were writing today, with one change he might be tempted to add Britain to the list of empires that “held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now”. Twain would replace “Jew” with “Israeli”, but unless the British act now to overturn this decision would he doubt that we are seeing the twilight of a once great country?
H/T Elder of Ziyon
This story is infuriating.
According to The JC:
The UK branch of Israeli cosmetics store, Ahava, is moving from its central London shop after years of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The owner of the shop, currently in Monmouth Street, Covent Garden, is looking for other sites after owners of neighbouring stores complained to the landlord following protests.
Protesters claim that the products sold in the store are manufactured in a factory in Israeli settlement, Mitzpe Shalom in the West Bank but are “misleadingly” labelled as produced in Israel.
A spokeswoman for Shaftesbury PLC, which owns the property as well as several others in the Seven Dials area, said: “When Ahava’s lease expires in September, we will not offer them a new one.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters have been demonstrating fortnightly outside the shop, which opened in April 2007, for more than two years.
Colin George, manager of clothes shop The Loft, next door to Ahava, said: “I’m pleased Ahava is leaving. It’s brought the street down…Everyone would like them to leave. I wish they had left two years ago….Maybe they should be an online business instead.”
While those brave few who have shown up at the Ahava store to counter-protest deserve respect and admiration, the cowardly acquiescence by those who have remained silent in the face of a coordinated campaign to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state is shameful.
That ordinary non-Jews (and even many Jews) in the UK can’t summon the courage, the will, and the moral clarity to defend this Jewish democracy under siege is a sad and ominous commentary on the political climate in their nation.
Israelis aren’t asking the civilized world to lay down their lives in her defense but, merely, that they stand up and be counted in the battle against those intent on convincing the world that she is an ogre, a nation beyond the pale.
Yes, some things really are that simple.
This is cross posted from Richard Millett’s Blog
One of the main campaigners for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign was arrested outside Ahava last night. After being taken to Holborn police station it was decided that no further action would be taken against him.
Pro-Israel activists went to Ahava on hearing that anti-Israel protesters have been congregating outside the shop for the past week without informing the police.
The protesters have been handing out anti-Israel leaflets, discouraging shoppers from entering the store and pressuring the employees.
Normal procedure is for the protesters to inform the police of an upcoming protest.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaigner approached the cameraman (me) and tried to stop him taking footage of the protest.
There is no prohibition on public filming and, as you will see, the cameraman (me again) was the one who was approached.
Then the campaigner inexplicably threatened to knock the camera out of the cameraman’s hands (20 seconds into footage).
The police asked to see the footage after which they felt there were grounds for the arrest:
The campaigner has never been camera shy before. He frequently allows himself to be filmed handing out anti-Israel leaflets outside various establishments that sell Israeli products.
He recently chaired a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting with Ben White and in the summer gave this interview where it is blatantly obvious, when he talks of 63 years of occupation, that his main concern is not “the occupation” but Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state:
Anyway, a very Merry Christmas/Festivus to everyone, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the other anti-Israel lobbies which, while claiming to be concerned for the Palestinians, just want to tear down the only Jewish state in the world.
You can try but you will be wasting your time, just like all those that have gone before you.
From the UK Zionist Federation:
Every second Saturday, a nasty group of bullies stands outside the Ahava Dead Sea beauty products shop in Covent Garden, disrupting trade and chanting anti-Israel slogans. Their aim is to shut down this Israeli business because they believe in boycotting Israel.
On the weekend of 20-21 November 2010 we will show them that we refuse to be bullied. And we need YOUR help!
The more people who turn up during that weekend to buy some of the wonderful products from this shop (all enriched with amazing minerals from the Dead Sea), the more we will show our refusal to be bullied.
The protestors will be there on Saturday from 12midday – 2pm, and we want them to see a constant line of people filing into the shop to buy products. But our BUYcott lasts all weekend, so please come any time you feel comfortable with. As the protestors are there on Shabbat, we hope that non Jewish friends of Israel might attend then, and the BUYcott continues all day on Sunday, too, for those who cannot attend on Saturday.
This is a perfect opportunity to buy these wonderful Israeli products which are great for the skin in time for Chanukah or Christmas. They make perfect presents. And for that weekend only, if you mention that you are part of the ZF’s BUYcott at the till, you will get TEN PERCENT OFF!
Please support a shop being bullied for selling Israeli products. Please support Israel. We are relying on you and your friends, so spread the word.
You can read more about the protestors here:
This is cross posted from Richard Millet’s Blog
ex-MP and head of Labour Friends of Palestine, Martin Linton
It’s Saturday and that means anti-Israel protest outside Ahava. The protest started an hour earlier than usual because some protesters had to shoot off to an anti-fascism and anti-Islamophobia rally.
So many protests, so little time.
After a year the Ahava protests are finally starting to attract some celebrity anti-Israel activists.
Two weeks ago Sarah Colborne, Director of Campaigns and Operations at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, made her first appearance.
She was present again this week but there was even greater royalty in the form of Martin Linton, Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, who lost his Battersea Parliamentary seat in May.
In March Mr. Linton told a meeting in Parliament that Israel was using its long tentacles to fund British election campaigns and to buy Conservative support. His speech made front page headlines.
I did suggest to him today that if he switched sides then this all powerful pro-Israel machine might win him a place back in Parliament. Sadly, he declined the offer.
Meanwhile, ever present Bruce, chief secretary of AAAUK (Americans Against Apartheid UK) took the opportunity to tell passers-by that disagreed with him that they were fascists (clip 1 below).
Others were content to hold up pictures of dead Palestinian children while describing pro-Israel activists as “bloodsucking” (clip 2 below).
In two weeks time it is Ahava BUYcott weekend where you can obtain a 10% discount on Ahava products and then wave your purchases at the anti-Israel protesters as you exit the store (39 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden). Always fun.
Rhiannon Stacey (who has blogged previously at CiF Watch) simply kicks ass in this video! (She comes in at about 53 seconds)
This is cross posted from Richard Millet’s Blog
Ahava is all perfectly legal. Come to the Buycott on 20 and 21 Nov.
With the incessant physical attacks on the Ahava shop in London’s Covent Garden it is about time that legislation was enacted to deal with the continuous intimidation of staff and disruption to business.
Last saturday anti-Israel activists stormed the shop again. They wheeled in a concrete block and locked themselves on to it before throwing themselves to the floor making it impossible to remove them. The shop was closed for three hours and the police came. The activists were arrested for aggravated trespass.
In a recent court case anti-Israel activists were prosecuted for taking similar action towards the end of last year but were acquitted on all counts.
The case collapsed because Ahava failed to show up in court. Ahava claim they were given no notice of the case. Others say Ahava chose not to turn up and defend themselves for fear of heavy cross-examination over their product labeling.
Ahava labels its products “Made by Dead Sea Laboratories Ltd., Dead Sea, Israel.”
It seems to be uncontroversial but when you have an ideological hatred towards the Jewish state anything, and everything, will be picked up on.
The Ahava factory that makes the products is based on the Dead Sea kibbutz of Mitzpe Shalem. It provides jobs in engineering, chemistry, research, and marketing & sales. There are 120 employees.
The main gripe for these Israel-haters is that Ahava’s products “come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the Occupied Territory of the Palestinian West Bank, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem. Don’t let the ‘Made in Israel’ sticker fool you—when you buy Ahava products you help finance the destruction of hope for a peaceful and just future for both Israelis and Palestinians”.
Well, we know that for them “peaceful and just” means the ending of the Jewish state.
But all this talk of illegality and mislabeling is a hoax. If you attend the Ahava protests you can view the many “Boycott Israel” signs and hear the constant calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. The protest is not about Ahava at all.
However, when the activists get to court they have very able solicitors who will expertly argue the law for ends to which Parliament did not intend.
They will argue that being on the West Bank Mitzpe Shalom is illegal and so as Ahava was not engaging in lawful activity when the activists invaded the shop the activists were not committing a trespass.
They are likely to be acquitted again and activists will continue to attack Ahava. Intimidated Ahava staff will continue to see their photos put up on extremist websites.
But both Mitzpe Shalom and the product labeling are legal. It is not the duty of a local magistrate to decide the legal status of Mizpe Shalom. And as Ahava is an Israeli company and the Dead Sea is also in Israel the product labels are not a misrepresentation.
These are simple arguments that Ahava can make with the help of able, albeit expensive, legal representation.
But Ahava should not even need to make this case as it is being targeted solely because it is Israeli.
Britain should follow the French line and introduce the offence of incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people on account of their belonging to the Israeli nation.
A French anti-Israel activist was successfully prosecuted recently for damaging Israeli product packaging in a French supermarket. Other prosections are due to follow. This is being supported by Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l’Antisemitisme.
So come to the Ahava Buycott, arranged by the Zionist Federation on 20th and 21st November, where you will receive a 10% discount on all Ahava products and treatments and where you can stick two fingers up to the anti-Israel protesters. The address is Ahava, 39 Monmouth Street, Covent Garden (near Leicester Square tube).
More importantly start lobbying your MPs for new legislation to protect Israeli products and businesses from being targeted solely because they are Israeli.
This is cross-posted from the blog, West Bank to West End. (This piece was written by a participant at the pro-Israel counter demonstration outside the Ahava store in London on 9/11. See our cross post of Richard Millett’s account of the event, here.)
I had the privilege and honour of being part of the spontaneous singing and dancing as caught on camera here.
Now I don’t mean to gloat but my point mentioned here is further strengthened. Just look at the life in those Israeli tourists! They would have sung and danced all day if the police would have permitted! So would I! I absolutely loved it!
But not only is my point strengthened but it has confirmed my suspicions about the enemies of Israel particularly the rent-a-cause-lets-bully-a-Jewish-business-called-Ahava (Don’t even get me started on the pathetic campaigns they peddle, that’s for another post)
It would seem that it’s not our handing out of powerful fact based leaflets to counter their lies that infuriates them. Nor is it us speaking to the public. Nor do they get too excited about us going into the shop to purchase the goods (this will elicit a mere “shame on you” chanting in order to intimidate). Nor is it our chanting of anything. Nor is it when our numbers of counter protestors are substantial. Sure all of the above annoys them any triumphs on our part spoils their hate campaign but the smugness, arrogance and nasty chanting never subsides.
What gets them, what really kills them and makes the fire burn in their soul and causes their eyes to darken is a group of Jews singing and dancing about love and radiating joy and peace. This it would seem, is too much to bear. Funny old world isn’t it folks?
I’m a regular at these counter-demos. I have never ever ever seen the other side appear so lost and angry about anything. For example go to the second clip on the link from Richard Millets blog. The girl who shouts “Israel terrorist state” has always been so smiley and charming. She is always very cordial and polite to the public and pretty good at engaging them. I have spoken to her before and whilst we ignore each other now she never seems the aggressive type and compared to some is fairly moderate. However look how she loses it, look at the venom being spat out of her mouth and then she looks at the floor with a face like she is going to cry (I thought I saw a tear? )
I have been told by many wise people before that the way to counter hate is with love and lots of it. I believe that is what we witnessed yesterday. Kill em with some love. Ahava is after all, the Hebrew word for love.
Those tourists were fantastic. Israelis at their best! They exported some of that “life” I was telling you about in Israel and brought it to the streets of London right when we needed it. They sang it, they danced it, they radiated it and showed the other side that in Israel we sing songs of love, peace and joy and do not stoop to chanting corny cheap hate filled blahs.
What a stark contrast eh?
Just like the state of Israel shines a little too brightly for the liking of the countries in the region almost blinding them, looks like we shone too brightly for the forces of darkness on the other side. They’d do well to bring dark UV filtered sunglasses next time to protect themselves.
Am Yisrael Chai (sing that part)
(Oh and in case anyone is wondering, we sang the Tikva at the end for good measure)
This is cross-posted at Richard Millett’s Blog.
Ahava protest 9/11/2010
There are not many times that you can say that anti-Israel activists are outsung and outnumbered, but yesterday they were.
The usual mob of nothing-better-to-dos turned up outside Ahava in London’s Covent Garden to vent their hatred for the Jewish state.
Only one person brought along an Israeli flag. She said she came as she was worried that as it was Jewish New Year there would be no one around to stick up for Israel. Apart from her and a few others the pro-Israel pen was looking pretty sparse.
A lone protester
Then as the small pro-Israeli contingent were deciding where to break for lunch twelve Israeli tourists who had seen the protests outside Ahava came into the shop and then marched out again, filled the pen and sang Am Israel Chai, David Melech Yisrael, Hatikva and Hava Nagila (see first two clips below).
The anti-Israel mob became less interested in handing out their leaflets and more interesting in demonising the Israeli tourists, with some directing shouts of “racist scum” towards them (see beginning of third clip below).
The next lets-all-demonise-Israel (and anyone who supports it) event will be at midday outside Ahava on 25th September from midday.
Subdued activists before Israeli tourists arrived:
This is cross-posted at the blog, West Bankt to West End. *
We threw the red paint. Malcolm drove the car, Nick was there too. Before we left Edgware we made up an alibi, in the unlikely event of the police stopping us, searching the car and finding the paint. Someone said that we could say that we were going, or coming back from, a house painting party. I’d never heard of such events, but apparently they exist.
It was about 2:00am when we arrived. Nobody was in the neighborhood and very few cars passed by. We figured that even if someone saw us, he probably wouldn’t want to get involved. Throwing the paint only took a few seconds and we were back in the car. We hadn’t expected too much trouble and it all went very smoothly. Then guess what. Driving back home, feeling quite relieved that it was all over the car got stopped. A policeman held out his hand and ordered us to halt.
How could he know? What’s going to happen now? As Malcolm braked everyone was trying to remember the details of the absurd fictitious party. There was no paint in the car and supposedly no evidence. Why mention paint at all?
The policeman was young and looked tired. “Are you aware that one of your headlights is not working, sir?” He asked. Malcolm was the best man for the job. He apologized sincerely and promised to take care of the matter in the morning, which he did. As we drove off it occurred to all of us that, it could have been a scene from a movie.” We threw the red paint. The year was 1979 and the workers of Aeroflot discovered it the next day. It was part of our struggle for the opening of the gates of the Soviet Union. We left pictures of Nathan Sharansky at the scene so they would know why their window was red.
I was reminded of that night when I read about the red paint thrown over the Ahava window last week. Somebody called the perpetrators of the Ahava incident vandals, this of course is nonsense. Assuming that he was not referring to the Germanic people who sacked Rome in 455 CE and he meant that they are people who “.. willfully or ignorantly destroy or mar something beautiful or valuable”.
They are not vandals. These people are political activists carrying out an ideological struggle. When they throw red paint, or chain themselves inside private buildings, they are following in the footsteps of every serious political campaign from the Suffragettes to the Blacks’ Civil Rights Struggle to the anti-Vietnam war campaign to the Jewish struggle for the right of Soviet Jews to leave the USSR. I disagree categorically with the anti-Ahava activists’ cause, but I identify more closely with the means that they are adopting than those of the Zionist Federation etc. The ZF appear to be running the campaign as if they were advertising a jumble sale. Put out some flyers, make some posters, write a letter to the paper, have a word with the local MP etc.
Hawkeye
Omar2
WellofSense
Medusa
The Alchemist
Louise
Tosca
Maimon
Telling the Truth
Israelinurse
Adam Levick
Margie in Tel Aviv
Guest/Cross Post
Hadar Sela
Anti-Ahava activists accuse Israeli owned store of “playing the Jew card”
June 16, 2011 in Comments which are off-topic, ad hominem, racist, vulgar or include threats of violence will be deleted | Tags: Ahava, anti-Zionism, Antisemitism, BDS, Delegitimization, Facebook, London | by Adam Levick | 39 comments
H/T Jonathan Hoffman
It looks like anti-Ahava protesters aren’t all that happy about the possibility that the Ahava store in London may be moving to a more Jewish area and will likely be closed on Saturdays, the day of the BDS movement’s weekly protest outside the store.
Per their Facebook Page:
So, it seems like the boycotters aren’t too happy about the possible decision by the Israeli owned store to “play the Jew card”, feel that Jews need to be educated on the atrocities their fellow Jews are committing in the “name of never again“, and that BDS proponents need to counter “100 years of Zionist brainwashing”.
As we’re constantly being reminded, such folks are “progressives” and “peace activists.” No, no hate here.
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