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 The Hollywood star has become the public face for soda-maker
SodaStream and is due to appear in an advert for the company
that is set to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
However, the multi-million dollar deal has caused a backlash
amongst activists and humanitarian groups because SodaStream's
largest factory is based in a Jewish settlement in the occupied
West Bank.
The company employs both Palestinian and Israeli workers and
says its plant offers a model of peaceful cooperation, but
settlements are deemed illegal under international law and are
condemned by Oxfam, which has a large operation in the region.
After consultations with Johansson earlier in the week, the
actress informed the charity that she would end her relationship
with them.
"Oxfam has accepted Scarlett Johansson's decision to step down,"
the group said in a statement. "Ms. Johansson's role promoting
the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam
Global Ambassador."
"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."
The controversy has come at a delicate time for U.S.-backed
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli
officials fear that if the talks fail, a nascent call for an
economic boycott of Israel and its settlements might grow.
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 In a statement reported in the American media,
Johansson's spokesman wrote that "she and Oxfam have a fundamental
difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and
sanctions movement".
That movement, sponsored mostly by pro-Palestinian
intellectuals and bloggers, advocates for a blanket boycott of all
Israeli goods and questions the state's legitimacy.
There is a different consensus among international rights groups
like Oxfam, however, which discourages trade only with Israeli firms
located on land in the occupied West Bank.
"The very existence of (Israeli settlements) amounts to a serious
violation of international law," the New York-based Human Rights
Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It is impossible to ignore the Israeli system of unlawful
discrimination, land confiscation, natural resource theft, and
forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where
SodaStream is located," the rights group added.
Johansson was named as an Oxfam ambassador in 2007 and has taken
part in a number of its global campaigns.
(Editing by Crispian Balmer)
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