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American Muslims for Jerusalem:
http://www.amjerusalem.org/2-28-01 Estee Lauder Boycott.htm
AMJ holds Press Conference to Announce Estee Lauder Boycott
On Wednesday, February 28 2001, American Muslims for Jerusalem
(AMJ) lead a coalition of advocacy organizations in a press
conference calling for a worldwide boycott of cosmetics giant
Estée Lauder. That announcement was prompted by Estée
Lauder International Chairman Ronald Lauder’s activities
in support of Israeli right-wing extremists.
Estee Lauders products include: Estee Lauder line of perfume
and make-up, Aramis, Clinique, Aveda, DKNY and Tommy Hilfegere
toiletries products. Estee Lauder also owns several lines
of hair and skin care products and shops such as M.A.C. and
Origins.
Ronald Lauder is the Chairman of the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organizations and President of the
Jewish National Fund (JNF). JNF is a quasi-government agency
whose main function is to legitimize Israeli’s theft
of Palestinian land.
In January, Lauder was the key speaker from the US 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.”
Hebrew University professor Yisrael Bartal describes Hazony
as a right-wing extremist. A columnist for the Israeli newspaper
Ha'aretz (9/14/2000) wrote that Hazony is a sympathizer of
the slain radical Jewish leader Meir Kahane, who called for
the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel. The goal of Hazony,
wrote the columnist, is to find new ways of “breathing
life into Kahane's racist, totalitarian, intolerant ideology.”
Ronald Lauder’s Jerusalem-rally speech came at a time
when the Israeli government was waging a campaign of siege
and starvation against the entire Palestinian population.
While Mr. Lauder supports some legitimate charitable causes
in the US, he shows his true colors when abroad by supporting
fanatic causes that seek to uproot an entire population from
its native land. 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. In contrast, the UN General
Assembly has demanded that Israel allow the Palestinian refugees
to return since 1948. "Lauder’s opposition to the
return of Palestinian refugees in order to maintain the pure-Jewish
identity of Israel is nothing short of apartheid at its worst"
said Turaani.
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