Lush closes all UK shops for day, urges humanitarian action for Gaza

Lush has closed its UK stores and factories for one day in a gesture of support for Palestine.

Lush said on its website that all 104 shops across the UK would be shut on September 3 (UK time), and those in the Republic of Ireland will close on September 4.

“Like the rest of the world, we struggle to find ways we can help while the Israeli government is preventing urgent humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza.”

Israel’s two-year military campaign in Gaza and the West Bank has involved continued attacks on civilians and key infrastructure, actions the International Association of Genocide Scholars this week described as meeting “the legal definition of genocide”.

Though the International Court of Justice found Palestinians “have endured decades of cruelty and systematic human rights violations stemming from Israel’s unlawful occupation”, humanitarian efforts to end the campaign have failed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed last month Israel intends to launch an occupation of Gaza City.

“One thing Lush can currently send into Gaza is our love and a strong message that we stand in solidarity,” the brand said.

According to the Telegraph, the shut shops are displaying signs that read “stop starving Gaza - we are closed in solidarity”.

“While Lush is losing a day of takings, this also means that the UK government is losing a day of tax contributions from Lush and our customers.”

The company urged the UK to stop supplying Israel with arms “to bring an immediate stop to the death and destruction”.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), an arms-trade abolition group, estimates the UK has approved around $1.4b worth of arms export licences since April 2015.

The brand has put the above sign in shop windows during the closure. Photo / Lush.

Lush has also pledged to revive the watermelon slice soap, which the company sold last year, donating the proceeds to mental health services for children in Gaza and the West Bank.

Watermelon has become a symbol of the humanitarian crisis because it shares the same colours as the Palestinian flag.

Proceeds from the second iteration of the fruit soap will fund prosthetic limb services in Gaza.

The company was isolating the closure to its founding location, the UK, Lush said customers can “expect similar actions may follow” in other countries.

The popular soap sellers have several stores in New Zealand and have previously thrown public support behind political causes locally.

Last year, the brand announced it was supporting an Action Station petition that urged the Government to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stop the Treaty Principles Bill.

Kiwis are set to march across Auckland’s Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine on September 13.

Aotearoa for Palestine spokeswoman Nadine Mortaja said marchers will be demanding the New Zealand Government sanction Israel.

“The genocide in Gaza is undeniable,” she said, “forced starvation is being used as a weapon of war, along with mass killing and the destruction of Gaza’s health system.

“New Zealand has a moral and legal obligation to act, and must sanction Israel now.”