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Israel-based Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories: Operating in a Hostile Business Environment
Ahava Under Fire
In 2012, Israel-based cosmetics company Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories (Ahava), which manufactured and sold cosmetics under the brand name 'Ahava', came under fire, once again, with the origins of its products coming into question. In July 2012, Abigail Disney (Abigail), film maker, philanthropist and descendent of one of the founders of the Disney Company, announced that she would renounce her share of the profits that the family had made from its investment in Ahava. Disney's company, Shamrock Holdings Inc.... (Shamrock) had invested more than US$ 400 million in Israel-based companies, out of which US$ 12 million was invested in Ahava.Abigail said that the company operated from the West Bank and exploited natural resources which rightfully belonged to the local population. In a statement, she said, “Recent evidence from the Israeli Civil Administration documents that Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories sources mud used in its products from the occupied shores of the Dead Sea, which is in direct contravention to provisions in the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Convention forbidding the exploitation of occupied natural resources. ... |
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While I will always hold my colleagues and coworkers in the highest regard, I cannot in good conscience profit from what is technically the 'plunder' or 'pillage' of occupied natural resources and the company's situating its factory in an Israeli settlement in the Occupied West Bank." She announced that she would donate her part of the profits to organizations working toward ending the exploitation.Ahava, founded in 1988, made skincare products and cosmetics from the mud and mineral-based compounds obtained from the Dead Sea. The company started in a small way and expanded rapidly to have a presence in over 30 countries across the world. By 2011, 60% its revenues were from exports. It was the only cosmetics company to have a license to dig minerals from the Dead Sea.
