Omar Batisha, head of the Egyptian broadcasting authority, ordered his workers last week not only to step up coverage of the events of the intifada and continue to produce fundraising programs for the Palestinians; he also promoted the production of new national songs. The joint committee for words and music, which authorizes the production of new national songs for the Egyptian broadcasting authority, approved a number of new songs this week, including "Arafat's stand," which will be sung by the famous Egyptian singer Warda, Ahmed Shafik Kamel's "God Protects Arab Children," and of course a tribute to the Palestinian woman suicide bomber Wafa Idris called "Wafa My Sister."
In Jordan, sales of cassettes of national and revolutionary songs are up, along with books on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The books of Yisrael Shahak on Zionism and of Salman Abu Sitha about the problems of the refugees and the right of return have become best-sellers, with new editions being published to meet the demand.
"We are currently at the height of a war in which the Arab armies are playing no role because of their impotence and fear of what the United States will say. Volunteers cannot cross the border after Egypt almost completely closed it off and in Jordan, a state of alert has been declared along the border. That leaves us, we who feel the pain of Palestine, only to deal with it on the intellectual level," explains a member of the writers' association.
Conferences are held almost daily in Cairo, attended by writers, poets and playwrights. The purpose is to come up with more slogans, more productions about the Palestinian cause. The boundaries of protest are very clear. Demonstrating is permitted, but only on the campuses; volunteers may not leave the country and attacks on what is termed the impotence of the government are forbidden.
One of the accepted modes of protest at present is the repeated call to boycott American products and the United States in general. But even this boycott suffers from a lack of clear goals. The Egypt authorities naturally oppose a boycott of this type and they have determined that it does not serve the Palestinian cause, harms Egyptian citizens and is not effective in convincing Israel to withdraw from the territories. Egyptian businesspeople doing business with Israel report that trade to Israel has decreased in the past year, although not significantly. According to official figures, exports from Egypt to Israel fell in the past 10 months by only $1 million and total $15 million (not including the oil that Israel buys to the tune of $100 million). Egyptian imports from Israel, on the other hand, totaled $35 million, compared to $46 million in the previous year, down by 20 percent.
No way to cut ties
The deputy director-general of the Al-Ahram Research Institute, Wahid Abd al-Majid, says that it is impossible to cut off commercial ties with Israel because they are an inseparable part of the peace agreements between Egypt and Israel. He says that a full boycott of Israeli products would represent a fundamental violation of the agreements, in other words, a return to a state of non-peace. This also applies to the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, which was demanded by thousands of demonstrators in Egypt and other Arab countries. Jordan, for its part, continues to adhere to its position that expulsion of the Israeli ambassador or a boycott of Israel would hurt the Palestinians more than it would hurt Israel.
Jordan is the only Arab country to extend humanitarian aid to the Palestinians via trucks that cross the bridges and helicopters that cross the border and land on the West Bank. Last week, King Abdullah and his wife, Queen Rania, went to the trouble of being photographed loading cartons of food and medical supplies on a helicopter on its way to the Palestinians. "A boycott of Israel and the nullification of the trade agreements would also prevent the transport of aid to the Palestinians," said an official Jordanian source. "Besides, we are tied by signed agreements that we have no intention of canceling."
Lacking Israeli products, which do not flood Arab markets, at least not openly, the United States and American products remain the only targets of an Arab boycott. American companies, such as McDonald's, which has over 200 branches in nine Arab countries, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Hostess and many others, are under attack in the Arab press. Entire articles are devoted to the fact that these companies give aid to Israel. One newspaper told of an Arab mother who convinced her children not to buy at McDonald's because the meat patties are made of the flesh of Palestinian children. In Egypt, McDonald's hurried to announce that it does not supply any aid to Israel but that it does provide aid for children with cancer in Egypt, and that consequently, boycotting its restaurants would adversely affect the ill children. In some of the chain's branches, franchisees changed the name of the restaurant, calling them "Man's Food" instead of McDonald's.
McDonald's marketing director for Egypt, Carol Grime, said this week that while there has been a certain drop in sales in the chain, she attributes it to the season, the examination period in schools and other reasons unrelated to the intifada. Despite this, recommendations continue to make their way via the Internet and fax machines to refrain from purchasing McDonald's products, which last year was placed under similar pressure. At that time, McDonald's in Egypt came out with an unusual campaign in which the company decided to sell falafel - a national Egyptian food - in addition to McDonald's traditional hamburger. The campaign failed and customers returned to the meat patty.
There are reports currently in Egypt of "shopping guards" that stand at the entrance to McDonald's restaurants and try to convince prospective customers to refrain from eating there. McDonald's franchisees, on the other hand, present impressive figures. McDonald's employs over 3,000 Egyptian workers and another 10,000 workers in the company's supply plants. And there is also the matter of about $100 million that the franchisees have invested in Egypt's economy.
"But when things get overheated, the facts and figures mean nothing," says an Egyptian journalist. "And if the public that is demonstrating does not get the Israeli blood that it wants, at least, let the blood of an American hamburger be spilled."
Letting off steam
"A boycott of American products is a sham," says a member of the Jordanian Chamber of Commerce. "Does anyone really believe that any Arab country can cut its ties with American companies? Can Saudi Arabia stop buying arms or medications from the United States? Can Egypt give up its military acquisitions from companies that make similar transactions with Israel? That is why it gets aid from the American Congress. But when the street screams, everyone screams along with it, even if they don't know exactly why."
The formal debate on the question of a boycott of American companies and products generally comes up against a bureaucratic wall, which determines that a decision of this type cannot be the private decision of an individual Arab country or even five countries. It must be a sweeping Arab decision, and as long as Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania maintain economic ties with Israel, there is no point in other countries imposing a boycott. The boycott committee, which is a branch of the Arab League and is based in Damascus, met in October, made a little noise about the boycott, but took no practical steps in that direction.
"The boycott is the way the Arab public can let off steam," says a Jordanian official. "It has to be viewed for now as a slogan that is also exploited by anti-government forces. We are now living in a global age in which no single Arab country can refrain from buying products from a high-quality and inexpensive source, even if that source is Israel or America. We, perhaps more than others, have to know that economic sanctions do not work. Has Iraq changed its policies because of the economic sanctions? How many years was Libya under such sanctions? And Iran? If we had products to sell to Israel, that would be another story. But as a slogan, boycott is excellent. And that after all is where our expertise lies - in slogans.
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