A new Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was launched this summer by the United Church of Canada, which will try to persuade six companies operating in Canada — Caterpillar, Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, Elbit Systems and Chapters/Indigo — to stop supporting the Israeli occupation. “The Campaign follows similar campaigns launched some time ago by the US Presbyterian Church and the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. We have launched ‘Occupied with Peace’ after almost two years of discernment and information gathering,” says spokesperson Jean Lee.

Lining up in the forecourt of the retail store in Cape Town's up-market Kloof Street on Saturday, human rights activists called a boycott of the business outlet.

They held up placards and sang.

The central London flagship store of Ahava, an Israeli cosmetics company whose products come from stolen Palestinian natural resources in the occupied West Bank, and are produced in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem, has been forced to move following a sustained cam