"Changing the world one sip at a time"... Scarlett Johansson ad becomes online meme for Israeli-Palestinian conflict

online meme

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Scarlett Johansson ad becomes online meme for Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The web has been flooded with images featuring Scarlett Johansson Photoshopped into some grim pictures of West Bank territories. A major political meme these days has been inspired by the actress’s cooperation with an Israel-based company.
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NYTIMES Scarlett Johansson Chooses SodaStream Over Oxfam After Dispute About West Bank Factory: Forced to choose between two endorsement deals, the actress Scarlett Johansson decided Wednesday to end her charitable work on behalf of Oxfam, an antipoverty group that opposes trade with Israeli settlements, and continue as a paid “brand ambassador” for SodaStream, a company that manufactures products in the occupied West Bank.

The break with Oxfam comes a week after the charity said that it was engaged in “a dialogue” with the actress, who had helped raise funds for nearly a decade, and days before the broadcast of Ms. Johansson’s Super Bowl commercial for SodaStream’s home carbonation machines.

Oxfam’s stated position is that “trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law,” should be discouraged because companies profiting from the continued occupation “further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support.” ...READ MORE

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The Guardian Vijay Prashad  Scarlett Johansson is right – the face of SodaStream doesn't fit with Oxfam: Thanks to the star's involvement with the Israeli company, illegal settlement activity is under increased scrutiny

Israeli settlements (including Maale Adumim) are built on land seized from the Palestinians during the 1967 war. By the standards of the Geneva convention, the Rome Statute and the international court of justice, they have been developed illegally by Israel. Israel has thumbed its nose at international law and continued to build its settlements, including industrial parks such as the one that houses SodaStream.

The European Union has called the E1 parcel of land that Israel plans to build on, extending from Maale Adumim, a violation of international humanitarian law. Johansson, in other words, had become the face of illegal Israeli settlement activity.

Johansson's new job posed a serious problem for Oxfam. The charity has over the years taken a strong position against Israel's illegal settlement construction at the same time as it has worked to deliver much-needed goods and services to the encaged population in the occupied Palestinian territories. In a powerful briefing paper from 2012, Oxfam called on Israel to "immediately halt the construction of all illegal settlements" and end "policies and practices that are illegal under international law and harm the livelihood of Palestinian civilians"...READ MORE

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ABC News That Scarlett Johansson SodaStream Ad Is Causing Problems

JERUSALEM January 30, 2014 (AP)

Scarlett Johansson has parted ways with the international charity Oxfam because of a dispute over her work for SodaStream, a company operating in a West Bank settlement that features the Hollywood star in an ad that will air during the Super Bowl.

Johansson became the latest casualty of a widening campaign to boycott the settlements, drawing attention to a larger debate about whether Israel will become an international pariah, at a steep economic price, if it fails to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid stoked such fears this week, warning that if negotiations break down "and we enter a reality of a European boycott, even a very partial one, Israel's economy will retreat backward and every Israeli citizen will feel it straight in the pocket." ...READ MORE

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& via many various viral (in my world) twitter & facebook posts

Burst the Bubble: Boycott SodaStream

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Oxfam has accepted Scarlett Johansson’s decision to step down after eight years as a Global Ambassador and we are grateful for her many contributions.

“Oxfam respects the independence of our ambassadors,” the group’s official statement reads. “However Oxfam believes that businesses that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.”   ...Read more

Who is OxFam.... "Around the globe, Oxfam works to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes. And we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that affect them.

We work directly with communities and we seek to influence the powerful to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them.

In all we do, Oxfam works with partner organizations and alongside vulnerable women and men to end the injustices that cause poverty."

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