Scarlett Johansson has backed Israel over Palestine and, it seems, money over principles, in her sudden parting of ways with Oxfam International.
Her departure from the charity, for which she’s been a global ambassador for since 2007, is making everyone involved look bad.
The charity’s beef with Johansson is her decision to stick with SodaStream, the Israeli bubbles company:
‘Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law,’ said the charity.
Hollywood actresses get involved with charities to boost their reputation and companies to earn themselves a bit more cash.
So when Johansson found she had to make a choice between the two, it was hard for her to avoid confronting some tricky ethical dilemmas.
Johansson’s decision to scrap her link with Oxfam rather than SodaStream seems to be a terrible error.
She doesn’t see it like that, of course. The actress stated:
‘SodaStream 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.’
The thousands of Palestinians living in occupied territory would disagree. They just see SodaStream as yet another Israeli company making profits at their expense.
Oxfam doesn’t exactly come out of this smelling of roses. Its opposition to all trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements seems overly divisive to many.
And SodaStream’s boss told Israeli newspaper Haaretz the production plant is a ‘pain in the ass’. He says they should never have decided to build there in the first place.
Which just goes to show why we should treat the company’s slick PR operation defending the factory as a ‘model for peace’ with a pinch of salt.
But it’s Johansson who must surely pay the biggest price for her decision.
She’s already being called ‘clueless’, which is charitable, and a lot of worse things besides on social media. There seems to be a photoshopping frenzy right now on Twitter.
This is bad for Oxfam, worse for SodaStream, terrible for the enemies of the Boycott Israel campaign and potentially disastrous for Johansson.
But is it really going to dent her star power? Sadly, the answer is: Probably not as much as it should.
