Communication officers of the regional offices for boycotting Israel are to hold their 89th meeting in the Arab League headquarters on Tuesday, alamatonline.net has reported.
The Arab League official with responsibility for the occupied Palestinian territories, and the general commissioner of the head boycotting office, said on Monday that the officers meeting in the conference would spend three days discussing ways to activate an Arab boycott of Israel. Mohamed Sbeeh indicated that a number of issues are related to different Arab-owned companies which violate the boycott rules, and ways to impose sanctions on them. A number of US companies with branches in Israel will also be considered for sanctions. He indicated that they would discuss the modification of the general boycott principles in order to reactivate them.
According to Sbeeh, the boycott of Israel is one of the mechanisms adopted to express the Arab rejection of Israeli “practices and violations” in occupied Arab lands. EU and US boycott campaigns have cost the Israeli economy more than $20 billion, he pointed out. The boycott by those Arab countries which do not have diplomatic relations with Israel should be added to that cost.
“A boycott,” explained Sbeeh, “is an internationally-recognised economic weapon.” It was used previously against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, he noted.
The conclusions of the meeting will be presented at the upcoming meeting of the Arab foreign ministers in September. It is expected to be attended by all Arab countries expect those having relations with Israel.
