By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent, Washington, DC
Albawaba.com
A US report released in Washington revealed that sales of American goods and services in numerous commercial sectors in the Arab world are down as a direct result of the Intifada and the anti-American feelings in the region.
The report said the trend picked up significant momentum last week, and warned
that the trend is likely to continue and possibly accelerate.
The report, released by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations on November 30, said that despite US efforts to downplay the effect of calls for a popular unofficial Arab boycott of US products in support of the Palestinian Intifada, evidence mounts that the boycott is having an impact.
The report also mentions that many people in the Middle-East are challanging the ideas that the boycott of American goods and services is hurting mainly Arab franchise holders. It said that many of Arab and American business representatives view statements as an attempt to deny the effectiveness of the boycott and the misleading spin-doctoring exercise. “The statements overlook the fact that almost all such franchises are held in partnership with American investors,” it said.
The report was authored by Dr John Duke Anthony, President and CEO of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, and Secretary of the U.S. - GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee in Washington, DC. Anthony, who has been in and out of the GCC region and Arab North Africa since the Intifada began, based his report on first hand observations and talks with US and Arab business leaders in the region.
Anthony said US policy ignores the damage to the image of American products in the eyes of consumers. “They fail to take into account the possible long-term impact upon children who have yet to purchase anything but who learn in school that to patronize an American product is wrong.”
He noted that US officials “do not weigh the implications of Arab leaders’ reluctance to close new business deals with Americans, including some worth billions that might otherwise have reached successful conclusion by now. And they do not acknowledge the blow the boycott has dealt to many who had counted on new marketing strategies to increase market shares and enhance brand identity,” he stressed.
Anthony warned there is ample evidence of the damage that the Intifada, and US responses and actions to it, has caused to western and especially American commercial and economic interests to date. “Yet there are signs afoot that the situation is hardly likely to remain static, and indications that, not very far down the road, there may be more damage yet to come”, he said.
Anthony referred to the statements by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at the Organization of Islamic Countries recent conference in Qatar that touched “a spiritual and emotional chord that resonated throughout the entire Islamic world. His precise words were, ‘It is our duty to underline the need to break diplomatic relations with any country which transfers its embassy to Jerusalem’."
Anthony believes that were such a scenario to materialize following a future decision of the United States to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as the US Congress has mandated, “the implications for a variety of American interests would appear to be less than heartening. Among US strategic, economic, political, commercial, and other interests and arrangements that could be affected are those that range from regional stability and defense, to trade, investment, technology cooperation, and the establishment of mutually beneficial joint business ventures,” he argued.
He added that observers and analysts in the region are not unmindful of what could happen in the event there were to be an American misstep on the Jerusalem issue in the period ahead. Not least among the implications, they believe, would be almost certain damage to American interests on a par with, and likely far greater than, anything that has already occurred as a result of the call to boycott American products on behalf of the Palestinian Intifada.
Anthony sighted evidence of the impact of the boycott on US products from his conversations in recent days with representatives of major American corporations with agencies, franchises, and distributorships in the region. According to him, a major US fast-food chain's volume is down 40%" since the boycott began. A different American fast-food chain has posted signs in the windows saying that it is 100 percent locally (i.e. not American)-owned. A manager of yet another US fast-food restaurant said: "My business is way down." The reason: "Expatriates have stopped coming. They leave work and either stay home or go to non-American establishments instead.”
He also said a prominent US automotive dealer recently advertised a major discount campaign in the hope of attracting buyers. He added that local observers believe this is an indication that its profits have declined, and this is its way of trying to boost sales in what is one of the largest foreign markets for American vehicles.
Anthony attributes the boycott to calls by leading scholars in the Gulf who have urged people to boycott hundreds of US products ranging from Big Macs and Coca-Cola to Calvin Klein and Levi jeans in support of the Palestinian Intifada. He quoted press reports of a list carrying the names of hundreds of US products to boycott was distributed at schools, shopping centers and other establishments throughout the Gulf, notably in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The detailed three-page list included US cars, health care, hospitals, clothes, cosmetics, food, restaurants, computer hardware, and electronic goods.
He noted that two major means of propagating and reinforcing the boycott message are the weekly sermons in mosques and daily classroom lectures throughout the region. The combination is rapidly instilling a degree of anti-Americanism at the grassroots that has not been seen in recent memory. In both venues, the basic thrust of the message is, "How can anyone purchase anything American when the United States is doing nothing to stop the injustice in Palestine?" By word of mouth, by cell phones, and through pronouncements conveyed by preachers and teachers – in these and other ways, the unofficial boycott of American goods and services is gathering steam, he said.
Further, he added, and almost unprecedented in modern Arabian history, is a significant decline in patronage of US brand fast-food restaurants, and of innumerable other American goods on prominent display in shopping malls, can be attributed in part to what, for lack of a better name, could be called "pupil power" or "kiddie clout."
According to the report, both phrases refer to the role that school children are playing in the protest against US policies. Parroting their teachers and classmates, students of all ages are asking their parents not to have anything to do with this or that American product. Adults, echoing not only what they are hearing in mosques and discussing with their friends and relatives, but acting also in answer to their own consciences and not wishing to be seen as moral laggards in the eyes of their sons and daughters, are doing the same.
In Kuwait, he said, numerous commentators have noted for quite some time that a significant component of the Parliament is becoming more and more nationalist and anti-western. In this regard, of particular concern to western business interests is that a sizeable number of deputies remain strongly opposed to proposals that western energy firms be allowed to invest in Kuwait's northern oil fields. Membership in militant anti-western, and especially anti-American, groups in Kuwait seems to be growing.
The report says that some American-brand eateries beyond the GCC region have been vandalized by those angered by US policies towards the Intifada. “A friend returning from Cairo told me of having seen the smashed-in windows at a McDonald's restaurant there. "It was awful," he said. Then he added, "It was also sad." In Egypt, the report says, opposition newspapers have published a blacklist of dozens of US firms, including Pepsi Cola, because it said “Pepsi stood for 'Pay Every Penny to Save Israel.”
The same report noted that "professional associations and intellectuals in Jordan and Lebanon, both with large Palestinian communities, have said they would issue a blacklist of names of US companies."
Bahrain, too, has felt the impact as expressed in the daily Gulf News. "The American fast-food chains here, widely popular among the younger Bahrainis, are beginning to feel the pinch in their business as public sentiment turns against the United States.”
Anthony believes all of these happenings in recent days and weeks can be considered collateral damage to the collapse of the peace process. “Any attempt to arrive at a net assessment of the material damage they have caused should be calculated not only in the currency of commerce,” he argued. “It should also take into consideration that which is of value that has also been lost in terms of macro strategic, economic, and political interests, together with everything else that Arabs and Israelis, together with Americans, had invested in the cause of enhancing regional economic cooperation.”
He added that the prospects for forging new business ventures between Arabs and Israelis, which was the purpose for which the Israeli trade offices were established in some Arab capitals, have been placed on indefinite hold and, in that sense, constitute yet another commercial casualty caused by the Intifada.
Another casualty, according to Anthony, is tourism, one of the mainstays of Israel's economy and a cornerstone of Egypt's and Jordan's as well. “The downturn in tourism that can be attributed directly to the Palestinian Uprising has to be substantial. If figures pertaining to tourism in Israel are in any way a guide to what may also have happened in Egypt and Jordan, it is worth noting
that, according to a report published on November 27, the volume of tourism in Israel is down 40 percent since the Intifada began,” he said.
In conclusion, the report says that the clear message to Washington officialdom, and to adherents of the Islamic faith everywhere, “was that the US government is being inhumane and dishonest. This has reinforced the view among officials and populace alike that, in their response to what is happening in Palestine, Americans are not only being untrue to their stated values and ideals. They are being morally unjust. The potential implication for US business interests and possibly a great many additional interests, should the Intifada continue indefinitely, would appear to be self-evident.”
“A new generation in the Arab world -- growing up in the countries of America's coalition partners, not just nations many consider "radical states" or "rogue regimes" -- are being inculcated with a deep-seated anti-Americanism that three months ago did not exist,” the report said. “The rules and the stakes have changed for America’s interests in the Arab world. One can only hope that Americans will come to understand this in time to correct the course or learn to accept the consequences.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
