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Letter to Kevin Ryan of GILT
31 July 2014
Kevin P. Ryan
Founder and Chairman
GILT
2 Park Avenue, 4th Floor
New York, New York 10016
Dear Kevin Ryan,
I'm writing to you today on behalf of an international boycott campaign
against Ahava cosmetics, an Israeli enterprise that has its main production
facility in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. We believe
there is a contradiction between your role as the Chairman of Gilt, an
online retailer that sells Ahava products, and your serving as a Board
member of Human Rights Watch, an organization that has taken an explicit
stand against Israeli settlement profiteering.
For the past four years, Ahava has served as an international
poster child for the evils of illegall settlement goods . It is on
the boycott list of the United Methodist Church, The
Presbyterian Church , and The
United Church of Canada. In 2012 Abigail Disney renounced
her share of her company's investment in Ahava because of the company’s
violations of international law
We believe that Gilt should stop carrying Ahava cosmetics because an
association with a company that makes its goods using pillaged resources
in a factory on occupied land is unethical and ugly. Would love to speak
with you about this issue.
Sincerely,
Nancy Kricorian
Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott Campaign Manager
Response from Kathy Leo
Letter to Kathy Leo
20 August 2014
Kathy Leo
Chief Legal and People Officer
GILT Group, Inc.
2 Park Avenue, 4th Floor
New York, New York 10016
Dear Kathy Leo,
I am writing in follow up on our exchange about Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories,
an Israeli company with its primary production facility in an illegal
settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories whose products are
featured on GILT’s online store. In a letter to GILT Chairman Kevin Ryan,
we provided information about Ahava’s violations of international law,
including the company’s fraudulent labeling, co-ownership by two illegal
settlements, and its pillage of mud from the occupied shores of the Dead
Sea.
In your letter dated 12 August 2014, you state, “We have been in contact
with Ahava and they have assured us that they are operating within the
confines of the law.” I am still astonished by this response. It is akin
to saying, “We have asked the alleged thief if he had stolen the property,
and he assured us that he had not.” Ahava’s violations of international
law have been documented by Who
Profits, an Israeli research group that focuses on occupation profiteers,
by B’Tselem,
an Israeli human rights organization; and by Al-Haq,
a Palestinian human rights organization. Indeed, retailers around the
world have decided to drop Ahava products, and investor Abigail Disney
has disavowed her share in her family’s Ahava holdings, having taken the
small effort to acquaint herself with Ahava’s illegal practices.
We are further perplexed by how Mr. Ryan can reconcile his position as
a board member of Human Rights Watch, an organization that has taken a
stand against Israeli settlements and those profiting from them, with
his company’s selling goods from Ahava, which is the international poster
child for the evils of settlement profiteering. This obvious contradiction
is clearly a legitimate subject of public interest and discussion.
In recent weeks, Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, its home demolitions
and land confiscation in the West Bank, and its repression of Palestinian
citizens of Israel have given new fuel to the boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement in support of Palestinian rights. We would hope that
GILT and Mr. Ryan would stand on the right side of history by choosing
to drop from its roster goods from Ahava, a company that blatantly violates
international law and the human rights of Palestinians.
Ms. Leo, given that your response to our earlier offer to engage with
Mr. Ryan and GILT on this issue was essentially a laughable brush off,
I do not expect a further reply from you or from Mr. Ryan: GILT’s willful
profiting from the exploitation of illegally plundered resources is, however,
worthy of your attention and correction, and we remain available to you
and Mr. Ryan should you wish to learn more about the crimes from which
you are profiting.
Sincerely,
Nancy Kricorian
Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott Campaign Manager
cc. Kevin Ryan
Letter to Kathy Leo, Chief Legal and People Officer
of GILT
October 20, 2014
Dear Kathy Leo,
We have noticed that Ahava products are no longer listed as for sale
on the Gilt site and wanted to check in with you about their removal.
We are more than pleased to see that, for whatever reason, you are no
longer selling Ahava's settlement goods.
Sincerely,
Nancy Kricorian
Stolen Beauty Ahava Boycott Campaign Manager
Letter from Kathy Leo
October 20, 2014
Nancy,
Thanks for your email. I checked with our business folks and for business
reasons, we determined to discontinue this line of products.
Kind regards,
Kathy
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