Ahava closing up shop in London
The Ahava cosmetics company has closed up shop in Covent Garden, in the center of London's theater district.Owners of the surrounding stores in Seven Dials complained to the landlord Shaftesbury PLC that the repeated protests were affecting their business. A pro-Israeli group also held fortnightly counter- demonstrations, which attracted renewed controversy when members of the English Defence League turned up, unasked, and joined in the demonstrations in support of Ahava.One has to wonder why the company gave up. Unfortunately, the way the company folded in London has led to other attacks on it (Hat Tip: Will). Yes, from the same crew that worried about animal casualties from 'Palestinian' terror attacks but could not care less about humans.
Shaftesbury PLC eventually refused to renew Ahava's lease.
Lawyer Anthony Julius of Mishcon de Reya, who is also chairman of the JC, confirmed that he had held preliminary discussions with Ahava about trying to seek an injunction against the protests, but he said that the company did not follow through.
It had been thought that the store would seek new premises in north London, but Ms Haroush now says they have no concrete plans to do so, despite telling the JC in March that it was very important to the Israeli company to have a presence in the UK. "It's not just about making money," she said.
Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chair of the Zionist Federation, has led counter-demonstrations in support of the shop every fortnight for the last 15 months.
He said: "The closure of the shop is very bad news but it has to be said that Ahava has done little to help itself in the face of a sustained campaign of hate against it. Neither has there been any support from politicians for a legitimate business, which was hounded out of London, as if it were Berlin in the 1930s.
"The aim of the delegitimisers in the UK is nothing less than a complete eradication of Israeli-owned businesses and Israelis."
Labels: Ahava cosmetics, Londonistan
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM
3 Comments:
The woman who held the franchise never bothered to turn up for the court hearings. There were many of us counter-demo ing the nazis and we would have supported her all the way. It is a battle we would have won, considering Anthony Julius was prepared to take it on!!
Also, it may have given more London Jews some courage in standing up for themselves!!
Well, JitD, then I guess it might have taken a firebrand to buy the franchise. Or, now that it's closed, get the franchise and put it back in. I would be harsher on the EDL's sticking their nose in than on the Ahava people. That may have been the capper in Ahava's decision to get out of London altogether.
Ahava customers! Don't forget that gift giving season is on the way and that you can do as we do out in the sticks and get your favorites online!!!
www.ahava.com
Or through your amazon account:
www.amazon.com
search field: ahava
This story has just resulted in my placing an order @ Ahava online!
There are local ahava shops as f.e. http://www.ahava.de/
also lot of shops (with shipping from Israel) on ebay. Some examples:
http://stores.ebay.com/bestcosmeticforyou
http://stores.ebay.com/professionalconcept777
http://stores.ebay.com/Best-Service-Store
http://stores.ebay.com/jerusalembazzar
http://stores.ebay.com/israelthedeadsea
Paying rent in London is expensive anyway..
it is good to promote AHAVA shop in blogs from time to time.
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