In August, the American Thinker broke the story that The Body Shop, a prominent worldwide chain of stores selling hair care, skin care, and related products, had given a 'human rights award' to a group in Israel called the 'National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced,' which was described on The Body Shop website itself as:

a self—help and advocacy advisory service, and a network for all community—based organisations campaigning for the right of return of internally displaced Palestinians.

At the time, I noted that this may sound like innocent and pure humanitarianism, at least superficially. But the so—called 'right of return' for Palestinians is a code word for the swamping of Israel, a democratic state, with millions of Arabs born elsewhere, claiming to 'return' to a land in which they have never set foot. Should all of those claiming to be 'Palestinians' be shoehorned into Israel, in short order it would become another Arab political entity, and undoubtedly would proclaim Islam to be the official state religion. Israel, in short, would no more be a Jewish state, and the dreams of Arafat and bin Laden would be realized.

I wondered if the Body Shop would support the 'right' of present day Germans, the grandchildren and great—grandchildren of Germans expelled from Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, and other countries in the wake of defeat in World War II, to 'return' to these lands most of them have never visited? How about the Indians, descendants of those expelled or fleeing from the creation of the State of Pakistan?  Or the Pakistani descendents of those who fled India?

For that matter, there are Tories who fled the American Revolution for Canada, and their descendents must number in the millions. And there are tens of millions of descendents of Irish people who fled British rule to settle in America. Are they all to be allowed a 'right of return' to the booming Celtic Tiger? If so, they would all qualify for EU citizenship.

Events developed a momentum of their own. A Los Angeles group started an international boycott of The Body Shop. The Anti—Defamation League wrote a letter to The Body Shop, and various Jewish publications wrote articles on the story. A non—profit group called Boycott Watch, dedicated to investigating boycotts to see if their claims are true, turned its scrutiny to the charges made in our article and declared that 

Boycott Watch therefore confirms the boycott as being based on accurate information.

Now, the JTA news service reports on its homepage  in a "breaking news item" (no separate link available, but the item is currently visible):

Body Shop changes tune 

The Body Shop said it would change the way it gives awards after it came under fire for giving a human rights award to an anti—Israel group.

The London—based retailer of personal care products pledged to make the changes following a boycott led by Los Angeles—based activists and letters sent separately by the Anti—Defamation League, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reported. The 2002 award was given to the National Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced, a pro—Palestinian group that rejects Israel's right to exist.

The Body Shop also took down images of the award and the name of the committee from its Web site.

We are very pleased that The Body Shop has recognized the error of its ways. And we are very proud of our role in bringing this story to light.