If you don't have any idea what's going on between Scarlett Johansson and Oxfam, then you haven't watched the latest Super Bowl commercial.
It features Scarlett Johansson promoting an advertisement for SodaStream, an Israeli company that produces machines to carbonate beverages and operates in the West Bank settlement. Although it was pulled-off from Super Bowl it became viral and it didn't sit well for Oxfam leading Johansson in a bad spot.
The 29-year-old "Avengers" and "Don Jon" star is the newest brand ambassador of SodaStream this January, but her new job had a price as she stepped down and left her former brand Oxfam because of " fundamental difference of opinion" with the humanitarian group over SodaStream's West Bank location.
The charity has over the years taken a strong position against Israel's illegal settlement construction at the same time as it has worked to deliver much-needed goods and services to the encaged population in the occupied Palestinian territories. In a powerful briefing paper from 2012, Oxfam called on Israel to "immediately halt the construction of all illegal settlements" and end "policies and practices that are illegal under international law and harm the livelihood of Palestinian civilians".
In response, Johansson said that she was a "supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine."
The Charity accepted her decision to leave, noting in its official response that "promoting the company SodaStream is incompatible with her role as an Oxfam Global Ambassador ... Oxfam believes that businesses, such as SodaStream, that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support. Oxfam is opposed to all trade from Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law."
Since 2007, Johansson and Oxfam have worked together raising funds and promoting awareness about global poverty. In her role as an Oxfam ambassador, she traveled to India, Sri Lanka and Kenya to highlight the impact of traumatic disasters and chronic poverty.
