(JTA) — Scarlett Johansson said she does not regret her decision to become a spokeswoman for the Israeli company SodaStream.
Johansson told the British newspaper The Observer that she was aware before she signed on to work for SodaStream that the manufacturer of home soda makers operates a factory in the West Bank. The factory employs Palestinians and Jews, which the Observer failed to note in its article.
The Jewish-American actress resigned in January as a global ambassador for Oxfam, a position she held for eight years, citing “a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement” after the humanitarian organization criticized her decision to work for SodaStream.
“I stand behind that decision,” she told the Observer in an interview published Sunday in advance of the release of her new film,”Under the Skin.”
She added, “I was aware of that particular factory before I signed. And it still doesn’t seem like a problem — at least not until someone comes up with a solution to the closing of that factory and leaving all those people destitute.”
Johannson pointed out to the Observer, a sister newspaper of Britain’s The Guardian, that the issue that SodaStream represents is much larger and more complicated than one factory.
“I was literally plunged into a conversation that’s way grander and larger than this one particular issue,” she said. “And there’s no right side or wrong side leaning on this issue.”
