Boycott Israel

For as long as I can remember, there have been calls to boycott Israel. Of course these calls for boycotting Israel are simply a continuation of the Nazi boycott on Jewish business which started as far back as April 1933. The Nazi propaganda machine was continued with great success by the Arabs, so much so that even actors such as Emma Thompson have decided to boycott Habima. It is beyond logic why they would boycott Habima yet allow a "Palestinian" group to perform. There are many other dubious nations that were due to perform in London. What is also strange is that an Israeli company was boycotted in which they were going to show the "Merchant of Venice" in which the main character, Shylock, was outcast for being a Jew. Of course anti-Antisemitism is rampant in British literature through the ages.

Hot on the heels of the Nazi boycott of Jewish goods in 1933 was a boycott by the Arab Executive Committee in Syria. Coincidence? In 1945, the Arab League was created and very soon declared a formal boycott "Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries." The Arab boycott on Israel was adopted after the 1948 war.  The Central Boycott Office was headquartered in Damascus.

The boycott called for boycotting:

• Products and services that originate in Israel 
• Businesses in non-Arab countries that do business with Israel 
• Businesses shipped or flew to Israeli ports

Branches were setup in many Arab countries such as the beautiful Abu Dhabi where it received government status.

In 1977 the United States Congress passed a law that then-President Jimmy Carter signed, and according to which fines would be levied on American companies which cooperate with the boycott. One of the few good things that Carter did.

The boycott made strange claims such as a boycott against Coca Cola which had refused to do business in Israel. In 1961 in Cairo involving a civil servant who come into possession of a Coca-Cola bottle manufactured in Ethiopia and mistook the Amharic lettering on its label for Hebrew. He publicly accused Coca-Cola of doing business with Israel. Or the Egyptian Muslim cleric that called on the Muslim and Arab world to boycott Starbucks because he claimed that the female character depicted in the company’s logo is actually Queen Esther, the heroine in the story of Purim.

But through all this I really do not understand why they do not boycott Israeli technology such as cellphones, internet messaging and even their computers. Not to mention the many life saving procedures that Israel has given the world.

Do not mistake a boycott of Israel as a result of any conflict with the Arabs. This is of course an Arab-inflicted conflict. The boycott is simply anti-Semitism. I am all for boycotts, but do it properly. Stop using mobile phones. Emma, what has any Arab nation given the world?

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