The world's stupidest Gaza boycotts

Fri, 01/09/2009 - 12:06pm

Predictably, Israel's continued assault in Gaza has led to renewed calls to boycott Israeli products. Everyone has a right to express their political views any way they see fit, but it's safe to say that some proposed boycotts are less productive than others.

More than 2,000 restaurants in Malaysia have removed coca-cola because of the United States' support of Israel. The Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association has also pushed for boycotts of Starbucks, Colgate, McDonald's and Maybelline in order "to protest Zionist cruelty."

Coca-Cola is a particularly odd target since it's bottled and sold locally by a Malaysian-owned company, so the activists are really just hurting their own country's economy. (I remember from college that students campaigning for a campus boycott against "killer coke's" Latin American business practices faced the same problem.) It's also ironic given that the company was once criticized as anti-Semitic because of its reluctance to break an Arab League boycott by selling coke in Israel.

The Malaysian boycott seems pretty pointless, but it's not nearly as sinister as one Italian labor union's call to boycott "shops in central Rome linked to the Israelite community." To his credit, Rome's mayor Gianni Alemanno, an ex-fascist who hasn't always had the best relations with Italy's Jewish community, quickly condemned the campaign as reminiscent of 1930s race laws. If only the Italian right was so quick to object when other groups are victimized.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Not all that surprising. I

by Khalid on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 1:42pm

Not all that surprising. I remember an elderly Moroccan who had lived in Italy, France, Holland and Spain telling me that Italians were the most intolerant people he had encountered as an emigrant. I heard much the same from Somalis and Senegalese people in Rome.

Impotent Rage

by TH on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 8:51am

It always fascinates me when people have to deal with intense anger and impotence. I think hurting their own country is probably a common reaction to those two factors.

Indonesian protests

by awr on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 2:32pm

Most of the protests here in Indonesia are against US/Israel are directed at KFC and the golden arches folk.

In the long term the damage to US interests and attitudes towards the US will be significant.

Because of Obama, most Indonesians have recently become very positive towards the US - this may not last

We all know Colgate is an evil zionist entity

by Fern on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 12:26am

"In the long term the damage to US interests and attitudes towards the US will be significant.

Because of Obama, most Indonesians have recently become very positive towards the US - this may not last"

America can't and shouldn't make foreign policy decisions based on the whims of the Muslim street. I mean really. We elect a president they wrongly think is Muslim, so they like us, and then we show support for a longtime ally, and they hate us? Oh well. If Indonesia wants to be more influential with the U.S., they're going to have to develop more rational opinions about our behavior.

Re: Fern It's not about

by Virgil Tibbs on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 9:03pm

Re: Fern

It's not about electing presidents to please other people. It's about pursuing a foreign policy that isn't nakedly vicious and unjust. It's about the US not throwing its weight around, acting hypocritically and supporting conflict.

"America can't and shouldn't make foreign policy decisions based on the whims of the Muslim street."

How about if America makes foreign policy decisions based upon an ethical and just expansion of democracy, health and economic development, as it often promises but never delivers?

But I suppose that would require resetting all of the unquestioning pro-Israel, right-wing dogma that you've been force-fed over the years?

Wouldn't this had been a

by eugenesucks on Wed, 01/14/2009 - 6:37am

Wouldn't this had been a great article to bring up America's antiboycott laws?
It is interesting that Malaysians have more freedom than Americans when deciding what products they will boycott.

http://www.bis.doc.gov/complianceandenforcement/antiboycottcompliance.htm