RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Lush website contains a number of falsehoods concerning Israel and the Palestinian Arabs:
http://www.lush.co.uk/articles/our-ethical-campaigns/oneworld_100-10285_10.html

As the UK Zionist Federation observes, it would be worth refuting some of these, in complainants’ own words.  As mentioned in the second of my two posts cited above, blogger Edgar Davidson contacted the company as soon as he became aware of its mischief, and his example is worth following.

For instance, Lush claims: “Israel’s siege of Gaza has condemned its 1.5 million inhabitants to levels of poverty more commonly associated with sub-Saharan Africa – a humanitarian disaster with no end in sight.”

In fact, as recently as April this year he International Committee of the Red Cross declared that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza http://www.haretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/red-cross-official-gaza-isn-t-experiencing-a-humanitarian-crisis-1.357268

As with any population, Gazans form a mixed socio-economic group, and while there are undenianly poor people there, the more affluent are also very much in evidence, as witness the shopping malls that have been recently opened, where luxury goods are among the merchandise. http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/biggest-mall-in-gaza-strip-opens-its-doors-1.840744

Food and other provisions are plentiful at the markets, and thousands of tons of supplies are conveyed into Gaza from Israel weekly:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/HumanitarianAid/Palestinians/Humanitarian_and_Civilian_activities_towards_Gaza_Strip_June_monthly_report_2011.htm

As for the West Bank, it receives the second highest amount of economic aid in the world:
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/we-west-bank/eco-economy
In fact, the West Bank economy is one of the fastest-growing economies anywhere on earth.

It will come as a surprise to Lush, but the life expectancy of the average Gazan is longer than that of the average Glaswegian:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/health/factcheck+glasgow+worse+than+gaza/2320267.html

The Lush website notes:“A third generation of Palestinian children is now being brought up in refugee camps inside and outside Palestine”.

Surely it should be pointed out to the company that the Arab nations have done nothing to help these people, who they have cynically used as pawns for the past 60-odd years. Perhaps Lush could direct its indignation at the Arab governments, and suggest to them that they help the children whose plight they so unfairly lay at Israel’s door.  Whereas Israel successfully integrated the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees made homeless by Arab states, the far richer Arab regimes made no effort to integrate the Arabs who left Palestine.

And then, trotted out on the Lush website is the familiar trope “All the above actions are illegal under International Law”

They should be informed that (unlike Hamas, which has never permitted the Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit and which  terrorises its own people) Israel adheres fully to the tenets of the Geneva Convention.
Perhaps Lush can be asked why it fails to demand that Hamas cease its persecution of gays, its increasing repression of women, and its habit of firing Qassams at civilian targets inside Israel.  Needless to say, Lush is unconcerned  with the fact that the Hamas Charter that calls for the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of Jews wherever they live.

Lush should also be informed that far from being a counterpart to Apartheid South Africa, as insisted by the One World campaign that Lush promotes, Israel’s minorities enjoy more rights than do the mass of citizens elsewhere in the region who are clamouring for democracy, the form of government that has prevailed in Israel since its foundation in 1948. Israel, Lush should be informed, was the first country in the Middle East in which Arab women were able to vote; there are Arab members of the Knesset; an Arab sits on the Israeli Supreme Court, and if they wish Arab citizens of Israel can serve in the IDF.

Moreover, there is complete freedom of worship in Israel, and the Bahai, so terribly maltreated in Iran where the Bahai faith began, have their world headquarters in Haifa.

How to Contact Lush:

Chief Executive and Founder:
Mark Constantine
18-20 Market Street
Poole
Dorset BH15 1NF

Lush Press Office:
Tel: 020 7434 3948
Email: sean.gifford@lush.co.uk

Customer Care
18-20 Market Street
Poole
Dorset BH15 1NF
Tel: 01202 641 006
customercare@lush.co.uk