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We first saw the following call for a boycott of The Body Shop products in mid-August 2004: In 2000, in furtherance of their long-established policy of involvement in social programs, hair and skin care products vendor The Body Shop International instituted a biennial human rights award to recognize grassroots organizations working in a specific area of economic, social, or cultural rights. That first year, its focus was child labor around the world. Four worthy organizations laboring in that field were selected and awarded an equal share of the US $300,000 prize: For the second issuance of the award, in 2002, the human rights issue The Body Shop chose as its focus was housing and land rights, as they announced in a 29 October 2002 press release entitled The Body Shop Human Rights Award: In 2004 The Body Shop answered e-mailed queries about the controversial choice of the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced thusly: Official statement from the company to the contrary, support of The Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel (which the e-mail refers to as the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced -- it appears the group's name is somewhat fluid) is taking one side over the other in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The ADRIDI is committed to repatriating Palestinians to the land that now forms present day Israel, as a statement of the group's mission (as found on the Global IDP Project web site, starting on Page 3 of the document) details. Right of return is a major bone of contention between Israelis and Palestinians, with many saying it is the only issue that matters. This simple and innocuous-sounding phrase is verbal shorthand for the demand for the repatriation of the 1948 Arab refugees and their descendants (estimated at 4 million people) to territory now part of the State of Israel, plus financial compensation for their losses and suffering. In Israel, a country with a population of 6 million, of which 1.2 million are Arab, repatriation is invariably equated with the destruction of that nation through demographic subversion. Therefore, to financially contribute to the efforts of either side on this issue is to indeed take a position on the fundamental question of who rightfully belongs on the land that is now Israel. According to the e-mail quoted at the head of this article: Right of return is (and quite vocally too) equated with the destruction of the Jewish state by those looking at the matter from an Israel-sympathetic perspective. However, the linkage of right of return advocacy groups with terrorism is problematic in that the ties, if they exist, are not obvious. A less-than-careful reading of the statement above could leave recipients of the e-mail calling for a boycott of Body Shop products with the impression that the suds vendor gave monies to a terrorist organization, which is not what is being asserted. Even so, one statement (found on Page 5 of the NCDTID statement, as Point 6 of the group's 19 November 1999 Manifesto) is somewhat troubling: Although the language of warn of the consequences of conspiracies against ... is veiled, the sense of the underlying threat is not. The direction of one-quarter of its 2002 Human Rights Award to this right of return group was not the only time The Body Shop funneled financial aid to Palestinians or Palestinian causes. Through its May 2001 Day For Palestine project held at the chain's seven outlets in the United Arab Emirates, it donated one day's revenues from sales at those stores to support the people of Palestine. The resultant sum was forwarded to Palestine through the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation. More information: Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel Receives International Human Rights Award (Badil.org).
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