By London Rhymes with Palestine
LUSH, a company based in the UK’s idyllic Dorset, is famous for its hand-made cosmetics made from vegetarian, organic and natural ingredients that aren’t tested on animals. By visiting their website, one can garner that central to LUSH’s heart is ethics and a dedication to green initiatives, environmental policies, charities and ethical campaigns.
LUSH supports a wide range of environmental, peace and human rights causes that include campaigns against nuclear weapons, the welfare of marine life, unjust anti-immigration policies, equality and human rights. LUSH’s ‘No One is Illegal’ campaign states:
“This is about human rights and human dignity. It is about equality and justice. It calls into question policies rooted in racism, which punish people for being poor or uneducated, for being born in one place and not another, and for crimes which have been committed against them over centuries… all people are born free, with dignity and rights that should be universal.”
Morally beautiful people support LUSH.
It’s no surprise then that the plight of Palestinians concerns LUSH. In 2011, the company was one of the first to support the OneWorld hit single “Freedom for Palestine”. This song, written by Dave Randall from Faithless, who having visited the West Bank, realised that life for most Palestinians living under the illegal Israeli occupation is just as bad as that endured by black South Africans during Apartheid.
‘Freedom for Palestine,’ inspired by AKA’s classic track ‘Free Nelson Mandela,’ was made in collaboration with many artists, including Maxi Jazz (Faithless), LSK, the Durban Gospel Choir and is supported by Roger Waters, Massive Attack, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu & many others.
However, due to LUSH’s support of ‘Freedom for Palestine’, LUSH is now the centre of a hate campaign by those who support the Apartheid Israeli State.
The Apartheid Wall.
Zionist apologists prefer to label the Israeli Apartheid wall a ‘security barrier’ which is in error, as in 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the Israeli “separation wall” was disproportionate to its needs, causes severe humanitarian and economic hardship, infringed Palestinian rights, is illegal and should be pulled down. It was also recommended that Israel pay compensation for the damage it has caused. The court concluded that the construction along with measures previously taken, severely impeded the exercise of the Palestinian people to their right of self-determination.
To date, the Israeli State continues to build and maintain their illegal Apartheid wall. It annexes a significant part of the West Bank which denies Palestinians access to their land. Israel chose a very specific path for this wall, one that is much longer and much more meandering than any alternative barrier built on the Green Line 1967 border.
Construction of the barrier along this path has also taken much more time. It follows that protection against suicide bombers was far less important to Israeli decision makers than the annexation of land. Violent attempts to prevent Palestinian farmers from accessing their land west of the barrier bear out this conclusion.
Recently, the South African advertising & media watchdog (ASA) ruled that Israel can be called an ‘apartheid state’ after dismissing a complaint by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies that to do so was “untrue, not supported by any evidence…and contains a lie which amounts to false propaganda”.
Judging from comments on the ‘LUSH Brent Cross’ Facebook page, most of the Zionist vitriol is not worthy of a response, for example:
‘‘I think you will find that xxxx is Israeli, definitely the worst kind of person you can come across; a self hating Israeli-Jew! I hope you don’t live in Israel…as I would hate to think of our soldiers putting their lives on the line for a self-hating procrastinating individual like yourself.”
Hasbara campaigners have not done much better, as indicated by their latest tirades. It seems that in their world, human rights campaigners who take up a cause must also address all world causes, or be exposed as racists who are singling Israel out.
Ironically, after squeezing the ‘singling out’ lemon, an Israeli propagandist, then singled out Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, imprisoned in Gaza who is on his mind - yet thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the occupied territories are not.
Palestinians have been imprisoned without trial under draconian administrative detention decrees and Palestinian children are violently snatched from their beds at night by the Israeli security services and taken to potentially traumatising interrogations, yet these prisoners seem to have no place in the world of apologists for Israel.
No wonder LUSH fans are posting comments like:
A perfect product for Zionist propagandists.
The Hamas Charter is a favourite amongst Israeli propagandists. However, they ignore a crucial detail: for all the vehement rhetoric in the Charter, Israel is occupying the Palestinians and not vice versa. Moreover, for all its militancy, Hamas has offered Israel a long-term truce in exchange for ending the illegal occupation.
Israel apologists: UK Zionists at a recent demonstration.
Israel apologists have plenty of house cleaning to do when otherwise normative Israeli citizens march through Palestinian East Jerusalem chanting “Death to the Arabs” and “May your village burn down.” Again, these people are marching in Palestinian neighbourhoods and no similar Palestinian marches are taking place in Jewish neighbourhoods.
A simple analysis of Zionist reasoning begs a simple question: what have they done to counter Israel’s occupation, its racist policies and its violent conduct towards Palestinian civilians? Recently, a blogger from the Israeli lobby felt compelled to use the word anti-Semitic no less than 9 times in their short bluster against LUSH. Perhaps this is a Hasbara strategy; as devoid of logical reasoning, the primary stance must be one of subliminal messaging?
Reggae DJ, ‘The Admiral,’ a member of SA Artists Against Apartheid, said:
“The ASA decision is significant due to our own history of Apartheid. The decision sends a clear message to the Zionist lobby that the time has come for an end to the baseless accusations of ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate speech’ whenever criticism of Israel is voiced. Calling Israel an Apartheid state is legitimate because Israel practices Apartheid. The boycott of such an oppressive regime should be supported as it was in our own Anti-Apartheid freedom struggle.”
What is clear, is that the biggest threat facing Israel’s legitimacy is its’ own illegal policies and that is where we should all be focusing our attention.
Thank you LUSH for making a stand for Palestine!
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