Yes it does. Here’s how.
In the late 1940s, the Arab League declared a complete boycott on all Israeli products. This was known as the Arab League Blacklist. It was done in protest to the illegal occupation of the Zionist movement on Palestinian land.
The blacklist, as it evolved in the early 50s, is divided into three components. The primary boycott prohibits direct trade between Israel and the Arab nations. The secondary boycott is directed at companies that do business with Israel. The tertiary boycott involves the blacklisting of firms that trade with other companies that do business with Israel.
Throughout the infamous Arab League Blacklist period, Israel’s economical situation was bad. Many multinational companies from through out the world refused to work with Israel for fear being enlisted into the infamous blacklist. Once in, these companies could no longer trade or market their products in oil rich Arab land.
A great example of the power of this blacklist was in the early 60’s. Back then, Renault was the world’s no. 6 car maker. It cancelled its contract with an Israeli firm to assemble its cars in Israel. Reason: fear of an Arab boycott!
The Arabs' economic blockade of Israel has probably caused Israel more injury than Arab armies did in all its wars. Back then, it has effectively deterred Israel's plans to set itself up as an industrial nucleus to serve Middle East markets. Such well-known U.S. firms as Philco Corp., Standard Oil, British-Shell and Socony Mobil Oil Co., all back then have removed themselves from the Arab League blacklist by deciding that doing business in Israel is uneconomic. Even in the late 50’s, when Elizabeth Taylor bought $100,000 worth of Israeli bonds, the United Arab Republic banned any further showing of her films. The ban even applied to her future movies.
The US and EU oppose this blacklist and did all they could to prevent it from taking place. In 1977, Congress prohibited U.S. companies from cooperating with the Arab boycott. The World Trade Organization also did its bid to stop this blacklist by ensuring that its members cease all boycotts as a condition to entering the WTO.
Saudi Arabia was forced to end this blacklist in 2005 as required by the WTO. The other Arab League members slowly followed. However so, the Arab League members continued to support this black list via less obvious approaches.
Nowadays, government initiated boycotts or blacklists are a difficult thing to administer. However so, self imposed boycott maybe as equally or even more potent than the famous boycott of the 60s. Imagine this; the total global Muslim population is said to have exceeded 1.8 billion in 2007. If the self-imposed boycott message is rightfully delivered, we may have a boycott of close to a quarter of the world’s population. Furthermore, the neutrals or anti-violence population may also join in making the boycott close to a third of the world’s population. That surely sends shivers down any consumer driven establishment.
Self imposed boycott may seem difficult to do for some. There are thousands of companies and millions more products out there in the market today. How are we to sort the bad ones out from the good? Finding made in Israel products is easy. All one has to do is look out for the 729 bar code number. If the bar code of a specific product starts with 729, this means it is made in Israel. Most manufacturing companies have found a way around this; manufacture their products out of Israel. Though manufactured out of Israel, profits earned from these merchandises are still channelled into Israel, funding their iron claw means. Israel’s strong economy is a reason why they are able to procure state of the art weaponries to continue their killings. What about the other western based companies that support and fund the Zionist movement? How do we identify them?
There is no sure way how to do this. One way is to do a little research. The information age has enabled us to access answers in ways not imagined possible 50 years ago. Researching on a specific product or company is easier than you may think. With the right connectivity, in just under 10 minutes, you can obtain enough information to make the correct civil minded and peace loving decision. If you are too lazy to do that, than keep your eyes and ears open. Be it from blogs like this, newspaper articles, radio, television, word of mouth or urges from pro-peace leaders; do keep a look out.
Do also have a positive attitude to this. Some may feel one person may not make a difference on a global scale. Wrong again. Each and every one of our choices has a global butterfly effect. Making the correct decision or making a switch is not too difficult to do either. Instead of Coke, drink Pepsi; instead of Johnson & Johnson, why not try Procter & Gamble and instead of Starbucks choose Coffee Bean. By staying united and positive towards this boycott, we can make a difference. Our affirmative actions and correct choices help this cause in a far greater scale than you can imagine. Each and every one of us has a role to play and each and every one of our voices can be heard via the choices we make. Spread this message, make the right decision and put a stop to this slaughter and lets us play a role to end the violence.
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Sure, boycott their consumer businesses. What about the employees? One must consider just how entrenched these companies are and how much Malaysian franchisees stand to lose if these businesses close down. But yes, by all means boycott businesses owned by Jews. It may ultimately deprive the state of Israel of some revenue. But how far will it bite them? Probably just a bit.
ReplyDeleteBut let's consider another angle to this conflict. Collective punishment has been proven to work in the past. After Arafat's intifada, Israel was flooded with suicide bombers. Israel's response was to destroy the family homes of suicide bombers. I remember the tears of old women who had their homes bulldozed to the ground just because one of their 8 children had blown himself up and killed a Jew. The suicide bombings stopped when parents stopped encouraging their children to sacrifice themselves.
After 2 devastating "wars" in recent memory, Hamas saw an opportunity from the Isil uprising in Iraq. With thousands of fighters flowing into Iraq in recent months to fight for a global Islamic caliphate, Hamas started a massive campaign to bomb Israel, using public facilities to launch missiles clearly knowing that they were inviting destruction upon their own public facilities. Their gamble for sympathy from the Muslim world has fallen on deaf ears. Except for numerous demonstrations all over the world in recent days, Hamas has not succeeded in attracting mercenaries to their aid against Israel. The Arab league of nations can only shake their heads in sorrow at the pointless loss of life. But has any of them made a public condemnation of Israel? The King of Saudi today condemned the war but didn't directly condemn Israel or Hamas. You think there could be a reason behind that? Hamas leaders have failed to answer accusations that they have amassed wealth in privately held bank accounts in Switzerland. Has the steady stream of physical aid from the entire world been used constructively in Gaza? Isn't a two state solution a better alternative to this endless cycle of war and ceasefire? (not war-peace) I've read that the concrete and steel used to build the tunnels could have been used instead to build 27 schools and 9 mosques. But Hamas is bent on a military solution to the Gaza problem.
After the deal reached in 2005, Israel pulled back from all the west bank and Gaza settlements. Did it stop the aggression against them? It only encouraged Hezbullah to go to battle with them. And innocent people were the victims again.
Israel's right to survive must be acknowledged and accepted by all. And the Palestinians should be set free from this illegal "political party" that won power over Gaza by electoral fraud, aggression and murder.
Having said that though, I believe Israel should stop punishing the Palestinians because they DID NOT elect Hamas into power. If the Mossad in the 80"s could successfully recruit the foreign minister of Iran as an agent, they surely have the intelligence capability to root out all the perpetrators of terror without the loss of innocent lives.
Israel is doing it wrong in numerous ways. They should be working on building up and empowering a bona fide democratic force there instead of just fighting and fighting without going behind the scenes and helping the majority of the people of Gaza install a Government of their own choosing.
Good article though. Thanks. 729..... Will look out for it. I agree with of your article that we must send a message that children and other innocents must NOT be sacrificed in Israel's fight against it's enemies.