Another Ricky’s Boycott Protest on Montague St.

By on September 29, 2010 7:40 pm in Brooklyn Heights

Approximately 20 activists protested Ricky’s yesterday evening on Montague Street, some waving Palestine flags, and holding signs encouraging boycott of an Israeli-made cosmetics company called Ahava whose products are  carried by the store. Video after the jump.

The protesters appear to have included members of Code Pink, as signs reference a “Brooklyn for Peace” organization which is affiliated with the Code Pink group. BHB readers may recall that the Code Pink group orchestrated a similar protest in front of Ricky’s back in July of this year.

Approximately an equal number of pro-Israel supporters counterprotested, some waving Israeli flags, holding signs, and chanting slogans such as “Not one inch!”.

Two NYPD officers stood between the two groups to keep order, all the while typing on their smart phones (perhaps updating Facebook statuses?).

According to other news accounts, Ricky’s has refused to remove the Ahava products and when boycott protests occur, sales of the products actually increase.

See video for a glimpse at the noisy scene.

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  • Arch Stanton

    Cudos to Ricky’s for not being bamboozled by a bunch of buffoons….

  • Caitlin

    This is just silly. They aren’t accomplishing anything at all. If they want to make a difference they should actively protest Ahava, not a store that carries Ahava. Am I right?

  • carol wald

    Hooray for courageous people standing up for international law and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israeli policies in Gaza and the West Bank.

  • David G

    I should hold a rally to restore sanity.

    Who has time to waste on this IN-sanity?

  • nabeguy

    I was dumbfounded to see Orthodox Jews donning wigs at this event. Blue, white, Elvis. I was left to wonder if they hadn’t purchased them up the block at Ricky’s Halloween costume outlet. Whatever the thought process was behind that decision, it only diminished their protest, and any arguments supporitng it, to the outer fringes of acceptance.

  • Arch Stanton

    Yeah Carol, let’s boycott every product that comes from an unscrupulous company. then we can walk around (because we’d have no cars or gas), naked (because the clothes we wear are all made in sweatshops), hungry (because our food comes from corporations like Monsanto and ADM), sick (because the pharmaceutical and medical insurance companies are gouging crooks) and of course cold (because we’d have no oil)…

  • James

    This is America- nobody freakin cares about all that israel/palestine crap- Thats their issue to deal with over there. It’s bad enough we’ve been hearing about it our whole damn lives. It’s like watching two jealous twin sisters fighting over a dress in someone else’s house. I don’t care about Israel. I don’t care about Palestine. I hope they both blow each other off the map so we can get on with our lives and Halloween. I am gonna go to Rickys and buy some ahava brand crap whatever it may be!!!!!!

  • WillowtownCop

    Some protests are counterproductive. If it weren’t for the idiots picketing in front of the planned parenthood on Court Street, I never would have known where to go if I need an abortion.

    Seems like these protesters are giving free publicity to a product no one had ever heard of.

  • Nancy

    The sea salt is great for arthritis pain and the body wash is nice and creamy. Chag Sameach!!!

  • Informed Consumer

    Ahava products are made in a factory in an illegal settlement in the Occupied West Bank. The company’s practices violate international law. You can read more about the growing international boycott campaign against Ahava because of its illegal practices here: http://www.stolenbeauty.org.

  • AEB

    Uh, James, speak for yourself–as you have–but not for all.

    There’s this thing about the human community nowadays: we’re all connected. It’s a global globe. Every shot is heard round the world.

  • Robyn

    Wonder why nobody is boycotting Sahadi on Atlantic!? Is it possible that part of the money that people spend there goes to support terrorism?

  • Fred

    James and others need to know that the US has never been nuetral regarding this conflict. Billions of our tax dollars go to Israel every year to support the illegal occupation and land theft in Palestine. If you care about international law that prohibits exploitation of conquered territory, you should support the boycott of Ahava procucts.

    Also, to remind our religious friends, one of the commandments is “Thou shalt not steal”,or “covet what belongs to your neighbor”

    Fred

  • Nancy

    Informed Consumer and Fred-
    “Illegal Settlements” and “illegal occupation”- That is not a fact, that is your opinion.

    Sahadi’s owned by Christian Lebanese, not Islamic extremists.

  • brooklynheightzer

    Occupied territories …well, perhaps we should all pack up and go back to Europe so that the native Indians could get back their lands.

  • Informed Consumer

    Hey Nancy,
    The settlements are illegal under international law. The occupation was called a “belligerent occupation” by Israel’s Supreme Court. Check out http://www.whoprofits.org (a project of the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace) for more information on settlement profiteers.

  • brooklynheightzer

    Informed Consumer, are you ready to pack up your belongings and go back to wherever you or your ancestors came from?

  • AEB

    …no, much better to have declared war on the “natives,” driven them off their lands, interned them on reservations–done our best to eradicate them.

    Shall we learn from history or not?

  • Eddy de Lectron

    brooklynheightzer, That sounds like a great idea. South of France here I come!!!

  • brooklynheightzer

    There you go – we already have one volunteer.

  • http://www.maxajl.com Max

    To the blog owner: you might avail yourself of this tool known as “Google” which will inform you that Brooklyn for Peace and Code Pink are in fact different groups, with different websites.

    Are people really arguing that because we committed genocide against Native Americans it’s OK for Israel to ethnically cleanse Palestine? What’s the argument? They’re bad too! That’s not an argument. That’s the complaint of a child.

  • Obama?

    Apartheid is just as wrong in Israel as it was in South Africa!

  • Fred

    Two wrongs never made one right. Also, Israel does not give equal rights to people if they are not Jewish. There are roads for Jews only and settlements (illegle under international law). This is apartheid, and your tax money is supporting this. Ethnic cleansing and unequal treatment under the law, cannot and should not be justified, no matter what ones religion or ethnic background is.

  • http://www.freepalestinefortnightlydemo.wordpress.com Carl B

    Hey people, boycotts work!! It’s working, as the Israeli government are threatening to severely punish organisations within Israel that encourage the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. It’s having an effect! Keep it up! Apartheid Israel is circling the drain!

    Boycotts put American businesses that discriminated against minorities out if business, ended Apartheid in South Africa and now will also put an end to the inhuman, vicious apartheid regime in Israel. Boycotting Ahava allows people to participate in helping to put an end to a slow-motion genocide of a people that’s being carried out by one of America’s most bloodthirsty client states.

    The settlement where Ahava is manufactured IS illegal according to the fourth Geneva Convention and countless UN resolutions. Israel feels that it can ignore international law, do as it pleases and feels that it can put itself above the accountability of civilised nations.

    How many of you were in Gaza or the West Bank? I’ve been there several times and saw children being shot at and arrested, families watching helplessly as their homes were bulldozed. I waited with hundreds of other Palestinians for hours to go through checkpoints where some women are even forced to give birth while Israeli soldiers laugh and joke, people being detained indefinitely, etc… I can go on and on….

    I urge everyone with any conscience to boycott Ahava and Rickys, as well as keep up a regular presence demonstrating against the stolen goods that are on sale. In London, we have large demonstrations every two weeks and several times closed the Ahava shop which resulted in several of us being arrested. Do you know what? We were found ‘not guilty’ when the company refused to go to court because they did not want details of their ILLEGAL activities being disclosed in open court! For those of you who support Ahava and Rickys, is this the company whose products you want on sale in Brooklyn? Ahava takes resources from Palestinian Land without permission or compensation, which makes them illegal! DEAD SEA MUD = PALESTINIAN BLOOD. Boycott Ahava! Boycott Rickys!!

  • Robyn

    Our tax money supports a lot of states, countries and people including Bin Laden (some thirty years ago) and unwittingly other current or prospective terrorists. So I would not use “tax money” as an argument here. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. In fact the Israeli’s democracy is why Palestinians are still there. Israel could have easily annexed the territories they occupied after they defeated Jordan and Egypt during the Six Day war launched by a group of the Arab countries.
    All Jewish people did was went back to their country of original from which they were driven some two thousand years ago and later prosecuted during the rest of their history. The last major Diaspora was precipitated in 70 AC when Titus destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. WW2 and the Holocaust (yes it did happen) was a major impetus for the Jews to go back to the country of their origin. AEB, to learn from history first you should know history.
    Palestinians aka beguines had two thousand years to build a civilized country there. Well we all know what they have achieved. Israelis built a vibrant democracy in some 50 years. Now the country greatly contributes to the entire world in many areas of science, medicine (why do not you people boycott Israeli pharmaceutical companies that save your lives) literature, arts etc. And by the way, Ahava is hiring a lot of Arabs and these very Palestinians that you are defending so passionately. I am not a Jew but I went to Israel and was amazed by the country they built – a true Oasis in a desert. Give this land to the Palestinians and, I think, you know what this Oasis is going to turn into…

  • BDS is dying, Carl

    Hey, Carl. Boycotts don’t work. Not only did Rickys sell out of Ahava again, this scene has been repeated throughout the country. In Silver Spring, Maryland, the products sold out in 2 hours. You are creating zionists where none existed before, and whats more, you are mobilizing and motivating the Jewish people and the supporters of Israel

    In America, the BDS movement has been flailing and failing since its onset. Ten years of failures, Carl. Trader Joes refused to submit. The BDS day of action against Trader Joes last summer led to sold out stores throughout the country. The Davis coop, the Seattle coop, the port Townsend coop have all rejected BDS. Stores, schools, municipalties have all rejected BDS

    Information from the very best website on BDS in America
    http://www.divestthis.com

    “During the very period when BDS was supposedly on the march, the size of Israel’s economy (as measured by GDP) nearly doubled from $110B to $190B. ”

    ” Israeli exports are growing rapidly and fueling the hot Israeli economy that the boycotters have spent the better part of a decade working tirelessly to bring to its knees. And as far as divestment (i.e., stopping the flow of investment dollars into Israel) goes, as has been recently documented the European venture capital markets currently invest more in Israel than they do in any single European country. In other words, even in Europe (which has been the target of even more aggressive boycott and divestment activities than the US) the BDS formula that translates investment and divestment into political support indicates overwhelming enthusiasm for the Jewish state.”

    And finally…
    “Yes, as it turns out, after nearly ten years of BDS-related propaganda targeting Israel’s most important ally, the United States, support for Israel has grown almost 20 percentage points.”

    http://www.divestthis.com/2010/03/running-numbers.html

  • http://www.freepalestinefortnightlydemo.wordpress.com Carl B

    To the Zionist coward who doesn’t even have the courage to leave his/her own name:

    I heard it all before. They said the same thing about the civil rights movement and South African apartheid. They even said the same thing about the Suffragettes.

    Time is on our side. Sooner or later, the racist apartheid government/state of Israel will cease to exist if it continues on its present path. Its suffering a death of a million cuts.

    Readers note how this poster tries to skirt around the human rights abuses carried out by Israel. I don’t know anyone who after reading any of the accounts of Operation Cast Lead, the use of white phosperous and the Israeli pirate actions regarding the Mavi Marmara and other ships, etc, suddendly declared themselves Zionists. Most decent humans would find abhorent a movement that puts one group of people above another.

    If the BDS movement is not working and the Israeli economy is so “hot”, then why did the Israeli government threaten to severely punish organisations within Israel that promote the boycott movement?

    Sounds like a democracy to me!

  • the Where

    The “crisis” in the Middle East is really stupid. Bunch of selfish dopes on both sides arguing over a comic book. Get real people. Take off the stupid costumes and have a shot and a beer.

  • Joann

    btw..they sell Ahava at City Chemists also

  • Publius

    @Max: Perhaps YOU should use Google, as many Google search results exist that show the affiliation between “Brooklyn for Peace” and Code Pink.

    @Carl B: You sound a lot like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In fact some of your wording is identical to his recent speeches.

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