Hot Air From Not-So-Hot Heir
Abigail Disney shows that hatred of Israel is no Mickey Mouse operation:
Abigail Disney, a descendant of one of the Disney Company founders, said Monday that she is renouncing her share of the family’s profits in the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava, saying it is engaged in the “exploitation of occupied natural resources.”
Disney said she will donate the profits and a sum equal to the worth of her shares to “organizations working to end this illegal exploitation.” Disney, 52, a filmmaker and businesswoman, is the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, who co-founded The Walt Disney Company with his brother Walt.
Her move, however, has more of a symbolic significance than a financial one. Shamrock Holdings, the family firm in which she is a partner, has invested heavily in Israel, as evidenced by the wide-ranging activity of its Israeli affiliate, Shamrock Israel.
According to various media reports, Shamrock has invested some $400 million in Israeli companies, about a fifth of its capital. Among its holdings is an investment worth at least $12 million in Ahava, which is based in Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem on the Dead Sea shores, outside Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
“Recent evidence from the Israeli Civil Administration documents that Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories sources mud used in its products from the occupied shores of the Dead Sea, which is in direct contravention to provisions in the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Convention forbidding the exploitation of occupied natural resources,” Disney said in a statement released after informing her family and partners of her decision.
“Because of complicated legal and financial constraints, I am unable to withdraw my investment at this time, but will donate the corpus of the investment as well as the profits accrued to me during the term of my involvement to organizations working to end this illegal exploitation,” she said.
I guess Ms Disney doesn’t have such a problem with real occupation – such as Hamas’ occupation of Disney characters.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: Aussie Dave
If she really cared she would open up a new amusement park in Gaza – Disneystan.
Pirates of the Mediterranean?
It’s a Small (Jew-free) World?
Mr. Haniyas madcap tunnel adventure?
The Haunted Bunker?
Don’t forget the “Right of Return” roller coaster ride.
Cinderella’s Qassam.
And you thought those where spires and towers!
In the family genes:
“For the most part [Walt] Disney doesn’t appear to have had strong political views–his politics seemed to turn on whatever it took to keep his studio going. It’s likely his interest in the German American Bund sprang from a desire to forge relationships with Germany for possible film distribution there. On the other hand, there was a lot of antisemitic feeling in the Disney studio. While no one can specifically attribute bias to Disney himself, Jewish people were ready fodder for the animators’ gags and Disney approved every scene in every short the studio made. In one scene in the original version of “The Three Little Pigs,” the Big Bad Wolf comes to the door dressed as a stereotypical Jewish peddler. Disney changed the scene after complaints from Jewish groups. They didn’t catch them all, though. In the short “The Opry House” Mickey Mouse is seen dressed and dancing as a Hasidic Jew.”
Growing up, Sunday nights featured Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom or Disney at 7 pm on TV. My parents never watched Disney – they claimed he was a Jew hater. Years later, a friend of mine went to work for Disney as a writer and confirmed this – Walt liked Gay men and born-again Christians. I personally got a kick out of Eisner and Katzenberg saving the studio – Jews to the rescue, again.
Ah yes, with Marlin Perkins. A long time ago. Sigh.
Apropos “The Three Little Pigs,” the song from that cartoon, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” was written by a Jew.
Even more paradoxical–one of the major sports franchises in Israel is… Maccabi!
How the %$#@! did this end up on the wrong thread? I was on the Olympics thread when I posted it…
Another moralistic, pontificating busybody.
The comments on the link, from Israel’s leading Hebrew-language Arab newspaper, are simply sick. Thanks for a reminder as to why that media outlet needs to be shut down for its aiding and abetting of anti-Zionism. As in America, so in Israel: Joe McCarthy was right, the media is the enemy!
The Ha’aretz comments section is always filled with vile anti-Semitism. The Jew hating commenters I guess feel that they have a home at Ha’aretz, the newspaper that employs Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.
Joe McCarthy was a drunk a-hole. Let’s not bring his sorry butt into the picture. His unsupported attacks on supposed “Commies” in various places hurt more Jews than any other group.
Disney was known as an anti-semite, and it’s nice to know that the family business currently is heavily invested in Israel, despite the ignorant statement of Abigail about Ahava.