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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.
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".
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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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