Ben & Jerry's boycott heats up old embargo
For example, last week Ha’aretz dug up an archived 1925 article headlined “Boycott of Jewish Merchants,” which reported that young Arabs in Jerusalem had founded a movement “whose aim is to distribute only the goods of Arab merchants.” The article quoted the call published in an Arab newspaper: “Don’t buy from the Jews, come strike bargains with the Arab merchant, the merchant in danger of bankruptcy, and support him. We must boycott the Jews completely.”
An article in HaMashkif dated December 4, 1945, announces, “Arab League Imposes Boycott on Jewish Goods.” The Arab League’s official statement, issued in Cairo, declared that the boycott was imposed due to the “Zionist threat and the Zionists’ attempt to base Jewish capital in Israel… to enable the establishment of a Jewish state. The council of the Arab League has determined that Jewish goods are undesirable in Arab countries. Opening the market to them means helping the Zionists’ political aspirations.”
But the boycott wasn’t a dazzling success. Hatzofeh on January 3, 1946, notes that “Arabs are buying in Tel Aviv just as before,” and that “many Arabs” came to buy from Jewish businesses.
Although that boycott soon petered out, it was nevertheless renewed after the foundation of the State of Israel, and extended beyond the economic sphere. The terms prohibited Arab countries from issuing visas to Israeli visitors, and forbade vessels that called in Israel to dock in Arab ports. Egypt even blocked the Suez Canal to Israeli vessels, despite clear international treaties prohibiting this.
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