Scarlett Johansson Left Nothing Lost in Translation with Oxfam

A movement to boycott goods produced in Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories has led to American actress Scarlett Johansson resigning from her role as a global goodwill ambassador for Oxfam International. Johansson's promotion of SodaStrean angered Oxfam. SodaStream operates in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967, along with the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek all three territories for a future state. Johansson will appear in a high profile ad for the company set to air during the Super Bowl Sunday. Oxfam says her dual role is incompatible with her Oxfam position. The charity first voiced unhappiness with her dual role last week. Oxfam believes SodaStream and other businesses operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank contribute to the "denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support." The charity said it opposes all trade from the Israeli settlements, "which are illegal under international law." Johansson said she is resigning her Oxfam position because of a "fundamental difference of opinion." Pro-Palestinian activists who advocate consumer boycotts of goods produced in Jewish settlements have encouraged the public to shun SodaStream. The company's main plant is in an Israeli industrial zone next to the settlement of Maaleh Adumim in the West Bank. SodaStream makes machines and home beverage carbonation systems and hopes its Super Bowl TV ad featuring Johansson will increase its US market share, which lags far behind its market penetration in Europe. Oxfam expressed concern about Johansson's role last week after she had become a global brand representative for SodaStream, whose president Daniel Birnbaum, told the AP that the campaign to boycott products from Israeli settlements had not had any impact on SodaStream. We have not lost a single customer," he said. "If anything, it advances our awareness around the world, because people are talking about SodaStream." Birnbaum said his factory was "a model for peace....We're very proud to be here and contribute to the co-existence and hopefully the peace in this region," he told Reuters news agency. He said the company does not want to "sacrifice" the jobs of 500 Palestinians who work in the SodaStream factory "for some political cause" of activist groups. These jobs, Birnbaum added, support several tbousand members of our Palestinian employees' families. The World Jewish Congress issued a statement Thursday praising Johansson for her "forthright defense of economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians." The WJC said the actress was a "role model for others confronted with insidious anti-Israeli pressure." The office of the actress issued a statement : "Scarlett Johansson has respectfully decided to end her ambassador role with Oxfam after eight years. She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She is very proud of her accomplishments and fund-raising efforts during her tenure with Oxfam.....SodaStream is a company that is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbours working alongside each other receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights." SodaStream operates one of the hundreds of factories constructed in some 20 Israeli-run industrial zones in the West Bank where Israelis and Palestinians work together. ~~~~~ Oxfam was founded in 1942 to provide famine relief in Greece and other countries affected by World War II. Though Oxfam's initial concern was to provide food to relieve famine, over the years the organisation has become a non-governmental organization with quasi-political strategies to combat the causes of famine. In 2005, the New Internationalist magazine described Oxfam as a "Big Internationa NGO (BINGO)", having a corporate-style, undemocratic internal structure, and addressing the symptoms rather than the causes of international poverty by acquiescing to neoliberal economics and even taking over roles conventionally filled by national governments. Oxfam's support of a controversial Tony Blair government financial transaction tax proposal is such an example. Oxfam also largely unsuccessfully attacked Dole in Central America and Starbucks in Ethiopia about its dealings with the government, which finally agreed to enter into what it saw as a positive long term deal with Starbucks to provide coffee beans. Oxfam and other NGOs were also accused of lying or withholding truth from people it was helping to feed during the Rwandan crisis.Criticisms have been voiced by Red Pepper magazine and Katherine Quarmby in the New Statesman, which detailed growing rifts between Oxfam and other organisations within the Make Poverty History movement. In an article for Columbia Journalism Review, journalist Karen Rothmyer accused NGOs in general and Oxfam in particular of being too influenced by the priorities of the media, of providing inaccurate information to the press ("stories featuring aid projects often rely on dubious numbers provided by the organisations") and of perpetuating negative stereotypes which "have the potential to influence policy." She drew on earlier work by journalist Lauren Gelfand, who had taken a year away from journalism to work for Oxfam : "A lot of what Oxfam does is to sustain Oxfam," a position Linda Polman, author of the Crisis Caravan, seemed to agree with : "Aid organisations are businesses dressed up like Mother Theresa." ~~~~~ Dear readers, the Israeli commercial projects in the West Bank settlements benefit Palestinians, providing jobs that are desperately lacking otherwise. These work sites where Israelis and Palestinians come together to work also provide opportunities for them to know each other in real world environments. The Palestinian Authority has not objected to them. The Palestinians who work for SodaStream and other West Bank companies, like most Palestinians who work in Israel, are able to help families and build bridges. There must be other affairs that would better occupy Oxfam. Bravo, Scarlett. You honor America and Israel.