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Palestinians’ boycott of Scarlett Johansson’s Women’s March speech was both “clarifying and contemptible,” declared the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO.
By: The Tower
The groups who boycotted Scarlett Johansson’s Women’s March speech in Los Angeles due to her position as spokesperson for SodaStream, an Israeli company that employs both Jews and Arabs, was both “clarifying and contemptible,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said on Twitter Sunday.
“It’s clarifying and contemptible that some boycotted LA @WomensMarch because of Scarlett Johansson’s presence based on her proud Zionism & previous support for @SodaStream, a company that employed Jews and Arabs,” he tweeted.
Greenblatt was reacting to news, reported Saturday, that a Palestinian group, Palestinian American Women’s Assn. (PAWA), was withdrawing from the march due to Johansson’s participation.
“The Women’s March mission says we believe that women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights,” Sana Ibrahim, a past president of PAWA, said. “Apparently that does not extend to Palestinian human rights, during the WMLA.”
Ibrahim’s sentiment echoes that of Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers of the Women’s March movement. Sarsour has said that Zionism and feminism are not compatible.
Julie Lenarz, a senior fellow at the Israel Project, rejected Sarsour’s formulation, observing, that “both movements represent groups that, throughout history, faced deep-rooted discrimination and profound hostility, simply for seeking equality among nations and people.”
She added, “The modern Jewish state is a place where Zionism and feminism thrive side by side.”
In 2014, Johansson was appointed global ambassador for SodaSteam. This led to her severing her connections with the controversial charity Oxfam. Johansson stood up to pressure urging her to disassociate herself from the company and wrote that SodaStream was not just “committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights.”
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