CodePink Protests Ahava Beauty Products

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, is escorted out of Washington, DC’s Union Station on Sept. 19 by Amtrak police after protesting the sale of Ahava products in an upscale shop. Photo William Hughes

Dina Kennedy (l) and CodePink’s Gael Murphy outside Union Station, with a sign reading “No Love in Occupation!” Photo William Hughes

Activists from CodePink, a women-initiated peace and justice movement, staged a protest action on Sept. 19 inside and in front of an upscale shop located in Union Station in Washington, DC. The store, according to CodePink, carries products of “Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories,” an Israeli company based in an illegal West Bank settlement. In its press release, CodePink asserted that it is time “to expose the dirty truth” about Ahava’s products, which are made in the Mitzpe Shalem settlement and which also “exploit occupied natural resources” in their production. The Amtrak police were eventually called to the scene and protesters were told to exit the property. For information on this issue visit <www.stolenbeauty.org/article.php?list=type&type=415>. A YouTube video clip of the protest can be seen at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUEMCRQx7uQ>.

—William Hughes