Cosmetic Giant Under Fire In Lebanon For Zionist Stances
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Demonstrators calling for the boycott of “Zionist” Estee Lauder |
BEIRUT,
August 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The U.S.-based
cosmetic company Estee Lauder, came under attack on Friday, when
nearly a hundred people protested outside a Lebanese department store,
demanding it to stop carrying the company’s products, because of its
staunch support for Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported Saturday.
The
protesters waved Lebanese and Palestinian flags, shook their fists,
and told passers-by not to spend money at the store in downtown
Beirut, reported Ha’aretz.
According
to the paper, the boycott organisers said they have
singled out the company because of Estee Lauder International chairman
Ron Lauder's public support for Israel.
Activists
have urged boycotts of businesses and products they consider backers
of Israel, as well as some U.S. brands, arguing consumers must do what
they can to counter U.S. support for Israel's attempt to crush a
22-month Palestinian uprising, the paper said.
Durign the protest, the employees
at the Aishti department store where Estee Lauder products were
displayed, ignored the protesters. Tony Salame, the chairman of Aishti
said that they carry international products and that they deal with
listed companies and they do not know who is behind them.
The banners outside, the paper
said, read: "Estee Lauder's presence represents normalization
with the Zionist enemy." One protestor, a mathematics teacher,
said: “We don't want pro-Israeli companies here in our city. They
can go where they want, to hell, but not here," reported the
paper.
Similar calls, the paper said, have persuaded the Lebanese to boycott
American products but have also unnerved some
Lebanese owners of U.S. franchises who have taken out advertisements
stressing their profits stay in Lebanon and do not back Israel.
Among Estee Lauder’s products are Aramis,
Clinique, DKNY, Prescriptives, Origins Natural Resources, MAC
Cosmetics, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Essentials, Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries
and Jane.
Estée
Lauder's chairman, Ronald Lauder, is the current president of the
Jewish National Fund, a quasi-governmental agency whose main function
is to legitimize Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land.
According
to another organization, the Jewish Defense League Estee Lauder
Corporation is being boycotted by the Arab and Muslim World’s
community due to Lauder's support for Israel. “Mr. Lauder has been
extremely courageous and public in his support for the Jewish State
and has taken great personal and financial risks to inform the world
of the war that the Palestinian Authority has declared on Israel and
Jews worldwide.”
The
organization urged Israeli supporters to combat this boycott, by
purchasing as much Estee Lauder and Clinique products as possible.
In
February, 2001, the American Muslims For Jerusalem (AMJ) led a
coalition of advocacy organizations in a press conference calling for
a worldwide boycott of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder.
That
announcement was prompted by Lauder’s activities supporting Israeli
right-wing extremists.
According
to AMJ, Lauder is the Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations and President of the Jewish
National Fund (JNF). In January of the same year, Lauder was the key
speaker from the U.S. at a rally in Jerusalem, organized by right wing
Israeli politician Natan Sharansky.
The
rally was organized to oppose the mere consideration of Jerusalem as a
negotiation item. Lauder addressed 300,000 Israeli extremists at the
gates of Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary, one of Islam’s three
holiest sites). Some of the protesters tried to break into the holy
site.
Khalid
Turaani, AMJ’s Executive Director said “this boycott of Estee
Lauder will send a clear message that people of conscience refuse to
do business with corporations supporting Israeli apartheid policies
which violate internationally-recognized human rights”.
In
1993, Lauder co-founded a think tank called the Shalem Center with
Yoram Hazony, a former Netanyahu aid. The Israeli Education Ministry
has said the center is “a research institute whose leanings are
extreme right-wing and even fascistic.”
Ronald
Lauder’s Jerusalem-rally speech came when the Israeli government was
waging a campaign of siege and starvation against the entire
Palestinian population, said AMJ.
“While
Mr. Lauder supports some legitimate charitable causes in the U.S., he
shows his true colors when abroad by supporting fanatic causes that
seek to uproot an entire population from its native land,” said AMJ.
According
to the organization, Lauder is also opposed to permitting Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes. “For Israel to allow these people
to return would be national suicide,” he said in a statement last
September.
According to
his biography at the Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish
Congress, Lauder, has been very visible as a supporter of Jewish and
Israeli causes. For example, the sponsorship of 8 Jewish
education institutions in Poland. He is Chairman of the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations,
President of the Jewish National Fund, and Treasurer of the World
Jewish Congress. He is a trustee or member of the board of: The
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Anti-Defamation
League Foundation, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Brandeis
University, and the Abraham Fund.
He is a member
of the International Society for Yad Vashem and the International
Board of Governors of the Tel Aviv Museum.
As
a member of the Board of the World Monuments Fund, he is involved in a
special program to stimulate the restoration of landmark synagogues
across the globe.
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