The Brooklyn Paper reports on a protest by members of anti-war group Code Pink at Ricky’s on Montague Street Friday:
Brooklyn Paper: The centuries-old Middle East conflict turned into a bizarre form of mud-slinging on quiet Montague Street on Friday when protesters demanded that the Ricky’s cosmetics shop stop selling a dirt-based cosmetic that, apparently, is helping Israel’s “illegal” occupation of the West Bank.
The store’s crime, according to the Brooklyn for Peace protesters, is its selling of lotions and creams made by Ahava, an Israeli company that takes mud from the Dead Sea and manufactures it into beauty products in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
“Hey Ricky, what’s that scent? Smells like an illegal settlement!” chanted the crowd, many of whom were decked out in spa attire for the occasion.
Friday’s protest was the first Brooklyn stop of the protesters’ “Stolen Beauty” tour, a campaign started by the anti-war interest group Code Pink. The group labels the occupation of the West Bank a violation of international law, and Ahava’s business a “dirty” exploitation of Palestinian resources.
The NY Press adds:
NY Press: The rather thin rationale for all this misplaced rage is that carrying the product, composed partially of mud from the Dead Sea, is a de facto endorsement of the “illegal” Israeli occupation. Protesters clad in spa attire reportedly chanted such inanities as: “Hey Ricky, what’s that scent? Smells like an illegal settlement!”
Regardless of how one feels about the West Bank situation, it makes no sense to single out an Israeli company, much less a store that carries its products. U.S. retailers stock products from many countries with appalling human rights records. Made in China, anyone? Ever hear of blood diamonds? And the gasoline in your car quite possibly comes from a place where women aren’t allowed to go to school and infidelity is considered a capital offense.
