A US women’s peace group has called on the organiser of Professional Beauty in Manchester to cut ties with controversial cosmetics company Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories.
 
The Professional Beauty North exhibition takes place at Manchester Central from 16 to 17 October and is organised by Mark Moloney’s Trades Exhibitions company. Ahava UK is listed as one of an expanded list of exhibitors scheduled to participate in the exhibition.
 
Codepink, a US-based women’s peace group, alleges Ahava is located in an illegal Israeli settlement and directly profits from the military occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian West Bank. The group will protest outside the Professional Beauty North show as part of efforts to highlight Ahava’s allegedly illegal practices.
 
The group pointed out Ahava was recently forced to move out of its flagship London’s Covent Garden after property owner Shaftesbury PLC said it would not renew the company’s lease in September this year.
 
"Ahava's pillaging of mud, its fraudulent labeling and subsidies to two illegal West Bank settlements make it an inappropriate participant in 'Professional Beauty's' show," a Codepink spokesperson said. “Ahava'sprinciple factory is located in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the West Bank where it extracts Dead Sea mud for use in beauty products. Its laboratories and production lines are located on land confiscated from the indigenous Arab population who are denied access to the Dead Sea coast and the minerals from which Ahava profits.
 
“Despite this Ahava markets itself as being based in Israel thereby misleading consumers and exhibitors such as those attending the Professional Beauty event in Manchester.”
 
Show owner Mark Moloney said he respected the right of the protestors to be present at the exhibition and was taking a balanced view of the situation. The protestors also demonstrated at the London Professional Beauty at Excel earlier this year where Ahava was present.
 
“They had traditional been a small group and generally well behaved, so we say live and let live,” Moloney told EN. “They have a right to make their point.
 
“We have notified the exhibitors and the venue and we’ll be monitoring the situation to ensure the protestors don’t harass visitors, but provided they continue to approach this in a civilised way, we take the same view. If things did change then obviously we’d take the necessary response.”
 
Moloney said it wasn’t an organiser’s responsibility to pass judgment on the exhibitor’s market position provided they were a legitimate UK business.
 
“Ahava UK has been in business for a long time and is a registered, law-abiding business – we wouldn’t deal with them if they weren’t,” he added.
 
How do you feel about protestors at exhibitions? Email EN’s editor: ncameron@mashmedia.net