Scarlett Johansson quits Oxfam over SodaStream criticism

[joeybee12]

LONDON — Actress Scarlett Johansson has quit her role with the charity Oxfam after it criticized her promotion of drinks company SodaStream, which has a factory in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The star is due to appear in a commercial for SodaStream during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Oxfam said the actress’ role global ambassador was incompatible with her promotion of SodaStream.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Johansson’s spokesman wrote, "She and Oxfam have a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement."

http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/scarlett-johansson-quits-oxfam-over-sodastream-criticism-2D12024228

[itsrobert]

1. Stephanie Miller is

a heavy promoter of SodaStream.

[CrawlingChaos]

16. Confirms my already low opinion of her (nt)

[BeeBee]

19. SodaStream is a sponsor of her show. n/t

[LittleBlue]

2. "Fundamental difference" = $$$

No doubt if Oxfam could pay her more, she'd have found a moral obligation to quit Sodastream.

Follow the money.

Also, being a supporter of Palestinian rights, this isn't a clear-cut issue. The West Bank won't be helped if West Bank Palestinians are laid off from well paying jobs.

[Enrique]

4. your comments seem contradictory

if it's not a clear cut issue, how do you know Johansson didn't see it the company's way? I have no opinion about her motivations, do you have some reason to believe she is inordinately driven by money?

[LittleBlue]

6. Just a hunch

She's probably getting paid hundreds of thousands (or millions for all I know) for a SB ad.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. I find your comment to be lacking in evidence and extremely harsh.

I'd hate to have a pov like yours. You see her point, but assume she's for sale and that she'd take money from Oxfam, which is a charity.

[LittleBlue]

7. Almost everyone is for sale

This is the real world.

[cali]

8. she was an Oxfam ambassador for 8 years. she clearly didn't do it for the money

your claim is just silly.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. You are incorrect about how most artists conduct business.

The fact that she conducts profitable business does not mean she is 'for sale' for any purpose at all. It is an offensive suggestion which does nothing more than reveal your own shallow principles.

[LittleBlue]

11. That sounds naive

The world is run by money for money. I don't see how anyone who pays attention to business or politics could think otherwise.

[AngryAmish]

18. just ask Ted DiBiasi...

[cthulu2016]

10. Any evidence her Oxfam gig was paid?

[LittleBlue]

12. Where did I say she was paid by Oxfam?

If Oxfam could pay her more than Sodastream, she'd change her official statement.

Reread this sentence:

No doubt if Oxfam could pay her more, she'd have found a moral obligation to quit Sodastream.

[cali]

14. lol. it's absurd to think this was all about the money for her in light of the fact

that she spent 8 years representing Oxfam. it's a no brainer to figure that this has nothing to do with money for her, dear.

[LittleBlue]

17. What you said seems to support what I think

What other than money would cause her to break from a charity? If the charity was so important to her, and let's not pretend she wasn't aware of the charity's opinion on goods made in the West Bank (they'd been calling for labeling for years), then she would have broken her sponsorship before abandoning her beloved charity. She broke her relationship only after they wanted her to sever ties with a recent endorsement of SodaStream.

And your little "dear" comment is a good example of why you take enforced vacations from this place. Deservedly so, you're working on another it seems.

[cthulu2016]

20. You could always try writing more clearly

A majority of readers of English will—having been informed that she quit Oxfam—reliably identify "more" as most likely referring to the most proximate of a whole set of possible "than x" possibilities.

[frazzled]

3. "Palestinian workers back Johansson"

There are pros and cons about the particular factory in question in this article (in other words, it's balanced), so make your own decision. But, just to be clear, we're talking about 500 Palestinian jobs here.

But those most familiar with the factory – Palestinians who work there – largely side with Ms. Johansson.

“Before boycotting, they should think of the workers who are going to suffer,” says a young man shivering in the pre-dawn darkness in Azzariah, a West Bank town cut off from work opportunities in Jerusalem by the concrete Israeli separation wall. Previously, he earned 20 shekels ($6) a day plucking and cleaning chickens; now he makes nearly 10 times that at SodaStream, which also provides transportation, breakfast, and lunch.

...

“The PA can say anything it wants and no one will listen because it’s not providing an alternative,” says one man, a 2006 political science graduate of Al Quds University bundled in a jacket bearing the SodaStream logo. As for reports that the company doesn’t honor labor rights, that’s “propaganda,” he says. “Daniel [Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream,] is a peacemaker.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2014/0130/Palestinian-workers-back-Scarlett-Johansson-s-opposition-to-SodaStream-boycott

[azurnoir]

13. gosh following that logic if only DeBeers had paid their worker more..........

just think of where we'd be right now

[CrawlingChaos]

15. We just love our oppressors! Really!

For a reality-based perspective, try this link:

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinians-oxfam-dump-scarlett-johansson-immediately

We rebuke Johansson’s condescending remarks that SodaStream is “building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine.” This position seems to come directly from the company’s propaganda textbook and has been consistently refuted by Palestinians. It is not for Johansson to lecture Palestinians on what is good for them. Palestinians are not employed in Israeli settlements as a matter of freewill; they are subjects to a captive economy, which settlements have been a key component in decimating, and they have largely lost their lands and sources of income due to Israel’s occupation and colonization.

Palestinian trade unions and civil society organisations have consistently rejected any suggestion that the oppressive reality of living under a brutal occupation – sometimes leaving Palestinians with no choice but to export fresh produce through complicit Israeli companies or work in illegal settlements – is a reason not to take action to end international complicity in human rights violations. Moreover, Palestinian workers employed by SodaStream have explained that they face systematic discrimination and are “treated like slaves.”