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on 13-11-2002 01:48
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By Zeba Khan
1939- Nazi forces under Hitler’s command invade and capture the neighboring country of Poland, expanding their boundaries and beginning WWII. Polish Jews and other Nazi enemies are rounded up and put into ghettos; small, cordoned-off areas where hundreds of thousands of Jews live in poverty, filth, fear, and oppression. Jewish homes became property of Nazi occupying forces, Jewish businesses, places of worship, schools, and lives all follow suit.
1948- Jewish settlers in Palestine declare themselves to be an independent state, carving a Jewish homeland right out of the middle of the Palestinian one. Through a series of ensuing wars, skirmishes, and land-grabs, 1.5 million more Arabs suddenly find their homes to be under Israeli rule. Arab residents are rounded up and moved to ‘refugee housing’ and resettlement areas where hundreds of thousands live in poverty, filth, fear, and oppression. Entire Arab villages and cities become property of the occupying Israeli settlers, their freedom of movement, autonomy, and lives all follow suit.
The complete history of what the Arab world calls the Nakba (‘Tragedy‘) is long, bloody and drawn out, and runs eerily parallel to the Nazi occupation of East Europe and the following Holocaust. The Nazi Regime’s open and unashamed extermination of Jewish rights, lives, and properties was thinly veiled under more benign terms like purification, just as Ariel Sharon’s current policy of state sponsored terrorism, assassination and massacre are called hard-line defensive measures to tear down terrorist infrastructure. It’s ironic that just a few years after WWII ended, some surviving Jewry took a lesson from the Holocaust and began the Nazi-like occupation of Palestine. The lesson they learned? It is better to give than to receive.
Israel celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998, a cause for mourning and shame among Muslims. In 2000, Ariel Sharon visited Al-Aqsa Masjid in an assertion of power over the area, and caused new life to be breathed into an aging Intifada. May Allah bless our Palestinian brothers and sisters fighting for freedom, and allow us to join their cause by showing impassioned...indifference. Guide us in our...inaction, save us from over-exerting ourselves, etc.
With the exception of a few vocal Muslims, the majority of the Pakistani population is sympathetic without being useful to the Palestinian Intifada. We make the appropriate obscene gestures in the roughly western direction, and then we go shopping and buy from companies that leaped to give legitimacy and investment dollars to Israel. We shake our heads, shed the occasional tear, drink a Coca - Cola and fill out our visa applications to the US. There are non-Muslims who do more to fight the Israeli occupation than some of us Muslims, Jewish organizations like Neturei Karta (netureikarta.org), Jews Against Zionism, Socialist Worker parties of the UK and others who raise their voices louder and more fearlessly in protest.
The truth of the matter is that we, Muslims, have been much less useful to the Ummah than we should be; our roles as advocates and protectors of world Muslims being taken up by non-Muslim organizations. Though distance and well-patrolled borders prevent us from physically helping the Palestinian Jihad (or perhaps help us excuse our inaction) we can still do out part to fight in whatever way we can, here’s how:
Put your money where your mouth is: Boycott Israel
If one day you discover that your brother has been murdered, his wife dishonored, his children tortured, and his house taken over by a shopkeeper, would you buy from that shopkeeper after that? No, in fact you would probably try to kill the shopkeeper with your bare hands to bring justice to the situation and avenge your brother’s death, his wife’s honor, and his children’s safety. The situation in Palestine is no different, your Palestinian brother has been killed, his wife raped, his children tortured, and the big businesses that have moved into your brother’s house are having a sale. Are you going to buy?
Financial protest is one of few options that’s open to Muslims in all parts of the world. For example, Coca Cola and its many subsidiaries are banned in most Arab states in protest of their staunch support for Israel and their refusal to honor an Arab League of Nations boycott of Israel in the eighties. Pepsi, on the other hand, at least honored the boycott for a few years, but have since moved on to do business with Israel anyway. In choosing the lesser of two evils, we would choose Pepsi. Or, in choosing neither of the two evil, we can drink Pakola or squash.
We won’t die if we don’t have cold drinks (in fact we could just drink Pakola), but the death of thousands of Palestinians are directly connected to them. It’s this principal that’s fueling the current grass-roots boycott of American and Israeli companies in Saudi and Egypt. In Bahrain as well, Al-Muntaza Supermarket chain, the largest in the country, has cleared its shelves of one million dollars worth of American products and returned them to the supplier. When AFPcontacted him from Cairo, general manager of Al-Muntaza, Abdulmunem al-Meer told the new agency ,“We are not selling American products anymore...”
It is only with superior weapons and resources that a Zionist minority is keeping the Palestinian majority under its iron fist, and without funding, Israeli’s well-oiled war machine cannot run. Financial protest is only a small measure on our parts, but an effective one if taken by many people. Needless to say, Pakistan is a very lucrative market for Coca Cola, and if Pakistanis suddenly stop drinking Coke, then Coca Cola suddenly has less money to invest in the Israeli occupation.
There are over a dozen other guilty companies that have been specially honored by the American Israel Chamber of Commerce and the Government of Israel Economic Mission for their investments in Israel, and there are plenty of other companies that Muslims can switch to instead. Any of those guilty companies could’ve done the socially responsible thing and refused to create jobs and investment opportunities in the illegally occupied land of Israel, but they didn’t. Some went out of their way to accommodate the new state of Israel, like Nokia, who even created a Hebrew-based cell phone service for the area. By boycotting these companies we are cutting support for Israel and no longer doing business with those companies that see the Israeli occupation as a prime business opportunity, and not as one of the most shameful chapters in human history.
One of the major offenders in this area is Nestle, who invested heavily in Israeli companies to keep them afloat, like the Israeli food Group Osem, 50% of which is owned by Nestle. In December of 2000, even after the recent Intifada had already begun, Nestle opened a special research and development office (R&D) to create jobs and support their investments in the region. Companies that especially deserve to be boycotted that are widely available in Pakistan are -Vittel, Libby’s, Nescafe, Giorgio Armani, Perrier, Redken, Maggi, Kitkat, Kleenex, L’Oreal, Calvin Klein, Lancome, Kotex, Playtex, Estee Lauder, Aramis, Clinique,Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan DKNY, Danone Group, Lu, Evian, HP Sauce, Huggies Nappies, Revlon, Disney, Milkiy Bar, Quality Street, Pure Life Water, Sanex, Bryl Cream, and Biotherm.
For a complete list of companies, a complete list of their offenses, as well as a printable brochure to take with you while shopping, visit www.inminds.com/boycott-israel.html.
Go whole hog: Boycott America
The English expression of ‘going whole hog’ has little to do with pork and a lot to do with sincerity. If you believe that the Israeli occupation is inexcusable, unjust, opportunistic, and a prime example of state terrorism, then say so, and remember so when you think about the US, Israel’s prime supporters in their oppression of Palestine.
Many of our children and family are overjoyed when they get an opportunity to live in the US, and don’t think at all about what living in the US means: paying taxes. Where do US tax dollars go? Into Israel. Aside from spending 4 billion dollars annually on Israel’s defense budget, the US Government has consistently poured financial support into the Israeli occupation in the form of grants, aid, and contracts given to Israeli companies. At one point the US was offering Israel 1.2 billion dollars to cover the cost of pulling out of Palestinian lands. That offer was not an attempt to coerce Israel into peace, but to help cut their losses if they ever agreed with a ‘Peace for Land’ deal made (and broken) in 1998.
When Yassir Arafat appealed to the UN for help in 1990, the US vetoed the motion and prevented any UN fact-finding missions from ever reaching Palestine. The US also vetoed UN resolutions to declare Israeli settlements in Palestine illegal in 1997, and has been Israel’s biggest financial supporter and backer for decades. In 1982, the US even sent troops to fight alongside Israeli troops invading Lebanon to root out PLO ‘Terrorists’ in Beirut. This instance of US involvement in officially denied by the government, but is common enough knowledge to be subject of a series of US films starring Chuck Norris - Delta Force.
Again, just this April, the US threat of veto forced the Arab members of the UN to modify the resolution that would’ve called for a third-party presence to oversee Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian areas.
Boycotting America is a logical continuation of boycotting Israel. As a Muslim who is saddened by the plight of the Palestinians and eager to take part in their Jihad, the least that one can do is NOT pay for the bullets in Israeli guns, the shells in the Israeli tanks that frequently blow our brothers into tiny, unidentifiable pieces.
When tanks roll into Ramallah for the millionth time, remember who paid for them. When the Israeli government officially organizes another massacre of refugees, remember who put them in power. When Apache helicopters assassinate Palestinian leaders, remember who supplied them to the Israeli army. When soldiers kill children on international TV, remember who helped train them.
When your children talk about working in America, tell them that part of what they earn goes directly towards the genocide of Muslims, and they can’t do a thing about it except not work in the US. The US may be cleaner (at least physically if not morally) and the standard of living much higher, but it is all at the expense of oppressed peoples and the cost of your Iman (faith).
May Allah forgive us for our inaction and accept whatever effort we can make now, and bless our struggling brothers and sisters with patience and victory. Ameen.
Last update : 13-11-2002 01:48
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