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Arab Boycott US & Israeli Goods |
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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. In Saudi Arabia
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. High-visibility American
food-chains are hardest hit. Branch managers of McDonald�s and Kentucky
Fried Chicken in Egypt have admitted that sales have fallen between 20 and
50 percent since the beginning of the second intifada, 22 months ago.
Similar losses have been reported from Saudi Arabia, which imports US $ 6
billion worth of goods from 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 beginning to bite. In Bahrain, 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. The people are however not influenced by such
advertisements and are prepared to make more sacrifices. The truth is that
the boycott campaign is hurting the pockets of pro-American and
pro-Israeli businessmen. In May 2002 delegates from
19 Arab countries gathered in Damascus, Syria for a meeting of Arab
Boycott Bureau. The group which was established by the Arab League in
1951, overseas 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 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 Hosni Mubarak, while permitting
boycott 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 at the university
campuses almost daily. Kentucky Fried Chicken was the target of the
protesters at Cairo University. They torched one of its outlets, reports
Crescent International, Canada. New York Times reported
that Saudi nationals, enraged by Washington�s Middle East policies, are
boycotting US goods that have led to a sharp fall of US exports to Saudi
Arabia. Official US figures show exports plunged 33 percent to US $ 2.8
billion between September 2001 and March 2002. In the first quarter of
2002, exports fell 43 percent to US $ 986 million from US $ 1.74 billion a
year earlier. Many Saudi consumers have shifted to European and Japanese
products encouraged by campaigners wearing Palestinian checkered
headscarves who have distributed leaflets at mosques, schools and shopping
malls. The boycott items include US made household products, vehicles,
food, beverage, fast-food restaurants and tobacco in protest against
Washington�s pro-Israel bias and anti-Saudi campaign by some US senators
and media. Two-way trade estimated at US $ 20 billion. Saudi exports to US
also fell 36 percent to US $ 2.44 billion during the first quarter
year-on-year from US $ 3.83 billion. US Embassy commercial officer in
Riyadh Charley Kestenbaum believes that there would not be much fall in US
exports to the Kingdom since there is no official boycott and the boycott
is only at the popular level. Kestenbaum expects that total US exports to
Saudi Arabia to shrink by about 20 percent in 2002 from US $ 5.97 billion
in 2001 when they fell by six percent drop from the year before. US exports to Saudi Arabia
in first half of 2002 plunged to a 12 year low, reported prestigious Saudi
daily Arab News. The value of exports reached to US $ 2.2 billion on June
30, a drop of 30.5 percent in the same period in 2001, the Foreign Trade
Division of the US Census Bureau said in figure released on the Internet.
The figure is the lowest for US exports to Saudi Arabia since 1990- when
Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War. Then,
first-half exports reached only US $ 1.7 billion. It is also less than
half of an all time high US $ 5 billion in a half year recorded in 1998.
Saudi exports to the US also dropped 24.2 percent to US $ 5.6 billion in
the first half from US $ 7.4 billion a year earlier. The value of Saudi
exports to US reached US $ 13.3 billion last year, of which US $ 12.6
billion, or 95 percent, were oil and gas related products. The drop in US
exports to Saudi Arabia is attributed mainly to a 39 percent decline in
exports of machinery and equipment from US $ 2.1 billion in the first half
of 2001 to US $ 1.28 billion. Exports of beverage and tobacco plunged by
55 percent to just US $ 59.6 million from US $ 132.5 million. A grass root campaign to
boycott US products in Saudi Arabia was launched in April following a
Washington backed Israeli military offensive against Palestinians. The
campaign was conducted from mosques, schools and universities, and through
newspapers, the Internet and mobile phone text message urging consumers to
shun products originating from United States, reports Arab News. Saudi
Arabia has been the US main trading partner in the Middle East, with US
civilian and military exports valued at US $ 6.2 billion and imports at US
$ 14.2 billion in 2000, according to official figures. Few would doubt there are
more who hate America today than a year ago. On the walls of buildings in
Cairo, posters angrily declare, �American commodities are Israeli
bullets�. Another chides, �Buy McDonalds�s and kill a
Palestinian�, reports The Boston Globe, New England. |