Unofficial
Muslim boycott begins to hurt Western businessmen and zionists
By Waseem Shehzad
Crescent Newspaper,
(Muslimedia)
May 16-31, 2002 issue,
The boycott of American and Israeli goods and products is gaining
momentum, especially in the Middle East, although most Arab regimes
have not officially endorsed it. The movement is spreading rapidly,
with individuals and groups taking the campaign to new areas, largely
through the internet. Even in Saudi Arabia, known for its subservience
to the US, individuals, groups, businessmen, khatibs at mosques
and even school and university teachers are supporting a campaign
that is helping ordinary people to feel empowered for the first
time. Unlike the campaign against apartheid in South Africa in the
seventies and eighties, which had the backing of the United Nations,
the current anti-Israeli campaign is entirely driven by individuals,
thanks to the power of the internet.
High-visibility American food-chains are the hardest hit. Branch
managers of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken in Egypt
have admitted that sales have fallen by between 20 and 50 percent
since the beginning of the second intifada, 19 months ago. Similar
losses have been reported from Saudi Arabia, which imports US$6
billion worth of goods from the US each year, compared to US$3.7
billion for Egypt. With consumers and pro-boycott groups placing
advertisements in newspapers and posting messages on the internet,
the boycott campaign has developed teeth and is beginning to bite.
In tiny Bahrain, base of the US Seventh Fleet, when one supermarket
chain announced that it was taking nearly one million dollars
worth of American goods off its shelves its sales shot up by 60
percent: consumers flocked to its stores to shop there in appreciation.
Other American goods that have suffered are such brand-name products
as Coke, Pepsi, Levi jeans and Starbuck. American-manufactured Marlboro
cigarettes are also being abandoned, with smokers switching to French
or local brands. Owners of American franchises are trying desperately
to win back customers with such gimmicks as offering to donate 20
percent of their profits to support Palestinian orphans, but consumers
are not falling for cheap moves like that. Others have placed advertisements
in newspapers and on television saying that the boycott is hurting
local workers. Maybe, but if so people are now prepared to make
such sacrifices. The truth is that the boycott campaign is hurting
the pockets of pro-American and pro-Israeli businessmen, and that
cannot be a bad thing.
Earlier this month, delegates from 19 Arab countries gathered in
Damascus, Syria, for a meeting of the Arab Boycott Bureau. The group,
which was established by the Arab League in 1951, oversees the boycott
of companies that deal with Israel. The meeting was the second held
since 1993, when it was forced by US pressure to end the boycott
of pro-Israeli companies after the signing of the Oslo Accords.
That the accords were a fraud perpetrated against the Palestinian
people has now become apparent to all. Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania,
which have diplomatic relations with Israel, stayed away from the
Damascus meeting. The government of Husni Mubarak, while permitting
boycotts of US and Israeli goods, has refused to take part officially.
However, the Egyptian people remain among the most ardent supporters
of the boycott campaign, with protest rallies being held on university
campuses almost daily. Kentucky Fried Chicken was the target of
protesters at Cairo University last month: they torched one of its
outlets.
Together with Egypt and Jordan, Saudi Arabia, also beholden to
the US, refuses to join the boycott officially. Nor is it willing
to support the call for an oil-embargo, as proposed by the Rahbar,
Seyyed Ali Khamenei of Iran, last month. In a khutba on Friday 12
April, he proposed that the Organization of Oil Producing Countries
(OPEC) institute a complete oil-embargo for one month to exert pressure
on the US to modify its policy of unconditional support of zionist
war criminals in Palestine. Two days later, Iraq announced that
it was stopping oil exports. The Iraqi announcement had little real
effect; Saudi Arabia immediately declared that it would make up
any shortfall caused by Iraqs gesture. That the Saudi regime
refuses to use oil to exert pressure on the US reveals its total
subservience to Washington. This was also evident when Saudi crown
prince Abdullah visited George Bush last month. At their meeting
in Texas, Abdullah reassured the US that Saudi Arabia will not allow
oil to be used as a weapon against the US and Israel. Non-OPEC oil-producers
Mexico, Canada and Russia would be able to make up
the shortfall if one or two OPEC producers cut their production,
but would not be able to replace all of OPECs current output.
The loss of so much oil from the international market would have
a serious effect on western economies; the advocates of this strategy
hope that it would force the US to change its policy of blind support
for Israel.
Saudi Arabia refuses to help in the most effective way it can,
yet the boycott has spread beyond the Middle East. In such places
as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Africa the
boycott idea is catching on. It is now widely known that many products
are identified by a bar code, instead of mentioning the country
of origin. Thus all Israeli products bar codes start with
the digits 729; American products start with 00 all the way to 09:
consumers are wising up to these tricks, and lists of
Israeli- and American-manufactured products have been widely circulated.
That the campaign is hurting the zionist state is evident from
the reaction of Israels supporters. When John Harris of Texas
Automotive Export, an auto-parts store in Austin, declared that
he would "not do business with Israeli citizens at this time,"
because of Israels oppressive policies, he was inundated with
angry e-mails and phone calls from American Jews. His fax also said:
"We urge you to rein in your military and stop your oppression
of the Palestinian people," reminding the Israelis: "Your
country has lost the respect of the civilized world." Then
the US commerce department got in on the act, threatening Harris
with sanctions because Washingtons "open market"
policy forbids boycott of Israel (although the US itself imposes
sanctions against countries it dislikes). Although Harris was forced
to back down, the episode reveals both the impact of the boycott
and the degree to which it has unnerved the zionist state and its
supporters all over the world.
|