Author Archives: Arab America

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the first senator to publicly announce that he will not attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s controversial speech to Congress.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Monday, the potential 2016 presidential candidate said he might watch the speech on TV, but declared he will not attend. Sanders also spoke with Joy Reid on MSNBC about his position, and said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) might have invited Netanyahu just to embarrass President Barack Obama.

“I think when it comes to foreign policy, especially in as volatile place as the Middle East, you really don’t want to be playing politics,” Sanders said. “And the idea that the president of the United States, who leads us in foreign policy, was not consulted about Netanyahu coming to Congress is unacceptable.”

Sanders also echoed the Obama Administration’s concerns about the timing of the speech, as it comes just a few weeks before Israel’s elections.

“The idea of allowing Netanyahu or any candidate from any country using the Congress of the United States for their own partisan political purposes back home is wrong,” he added. “It’s not something we should be doing.”

Source: www.mediaite.com

American Jews, brace yourselves. Benjamin Netanyahu is coming. And to hear him tell it, when he takes the rostrum to speak to Congress, he’ll be doing so not only as the leader of Israel, but as your man.

“I went to Paris not just as the prime minister of Israel but as a representative of the entire Jewish people,” Netanyahu said late on Sunday, in a reference to his visit to the French capital following the January murders at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in the city.

Then, alluding to House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress over Iran, Netanyahu let it be known that on March 3rd, he’d once again be speaking for all Jews:

“Just as I went to Paris, so I will go anyplace I’m invited to convey the Israeli position against those who want to kill us.”

American Jews, brace yourselves. Netanyahu, having spent much of his youth in America, ought to know you better. But no such luck. The prime minister relates to American Jews like a house-pet dog, trainable, capable of being useful, manageable, tamed to violate its undesirable inbred instincts.

Source: www.haaretz.com

Last week, the U.S. Soccer Federation did something bold, admirable and more than a little bit risky: It broke from a long tradition of playing it safe in FIFA politics and took a public stand against FIFA president Sepp Blatter by nominating Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein in the FIFA presidential election that will take place in May.

The decision by U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati was the right thing to do—Prince Ali, a FIFA vice president, is a reformer; Blatter, the king of patronage sports politics, is clearly not—but it’s a move that could also cost the U.S. one of Gulati’s crown jewels: The hosting rights for World Cup 2026.

What are the forces in play here? Let’s break it down:

Q: Why is it surprising that U.S. Soccer would take on Blatter?

A: Well, the USSF has voted for Blatter in all four of his FIFA campaigns, starting in 1998 and continuing through 2002, ‘07 and ‘11. Those votes weren’t necessarily because Blatter was a terrific leader. After all, he wouldn’t have become FIFA president in the first place without the support and vote-wrangling of some of the dirtiest figures in global sports, guys like Jack Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam (who have since been banned from FIFA).

Source: www.si.com

Thousands of American soldiers and civil servants have lost their lives in the War on Terror. Innocent citizens of many nations, including Americans killed on 9/11, have also paid the ultimate price. While the US government claims to stand against terror, this same government refuses to acknowledge its role in creating what has become a deadly international quagmire. Visas for al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World sets the record straight by laying the blame on high-ranking US government officials.

Source: www.createspace.com

Former State Department diplomat and Washington, DC attorney Michael Springmann has just launched his new book “Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World.”

IT was not the imam’s first time at the rodeo.

Scheduled to deliver an invocation at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo last week, Moujahed Bakhach of the local Islamic Association of Tarrant County canceled his appearance because of the backlash brought on by a prayer he had offered a few days before. The imam had been asked to confer a blessing on horses, riders and members of the military. He was met with gasps from the audience and social media complaints: “Outraged at a Muslim prayer at an all American event!” “Cowboys don’t want it!”

Vocal anti-Islamic sentiment is undergoing a revival. Four days before the imam’s canceled benediction, protesters at the State Capitol in Austin shouted down Muslim speakers, claiming Texas in the name of Jesus alone. In North Carolina two weeks earlier, Duke University’s plan to broadcast a Muslim call to prayer was abandoned amid threats of violence. Meanwhile Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republican of Louisiana claimed that if American Muslims “want to set up their own culture and values, that’s not immigration, that’s really invasion.”

No matter how anxious people may be about Islam, the notion of a Muslim invasion of this majority Christian country has no basis in fact. Moreover, there is an inconvenient footnote to the assertion that Islam is anti-American: Muslims arrived here before the founding of the United States — not just a few, but thousands.

They have been largely overlooked because they were not free to practice their faith. They were not free themselves and so they were for the most part unable to leave records of their beliefs. They left just enough to confirm that Islam in America is not an immigrant religion lately making itself known, but a tradition with deep roots here, despite being among the most suppressed in the nation’s history.

In 1528, a Moroccan slave called Estevanico was shipwrecked along with a band of Spanish explorers near the future city of Galveston, Tex. The city of Azemmour, in which he was raised, had been a Muslim stronghold against European invasion until it fell during his youth. While given a Christian name after his enslavement, he eventually escaped his Christian captors and set off on his own through much of the Southwest.

Two hundred years later, plantation owners in Louisiana made it a point to add enslaved Muslims to their labor force, relying on their experience with the cultivation of indigo and rice. Scholars have noted Muslim names and Islamic religious titles in the colony’s slave inventories and death records.

The best known Muslim to pass through the port at New Orleans was Abdul-Rahman Ibrahim ibn Sori, a prince in his homeland whose plight drew wide attention. As one newspaper account noted, he had read the Bible and admired its precepts, but added, “His principal objections are that Christians do not follow them.”

Among the enslaved Muslims in North Carolina was a religious teacher named Omar ibn Said. Recaptured in 1810 after running away from a cruel master he called a kafir (an infidel), he became known for inscribing the walls of his jail cell with Arabic script. He wrote an account of his life in 1831, describing how in freedom he had loved to read the Quran, but in slavery his owners had converted him to Christianity.

The story of Islam in early America is not merely one of isolated individuals. An estimated 20 percent of enslaved Africans were Muslims, and many sought to recreate the communities they had known. In Georgia, which has joined more than a dozen states in the political theater of debating a restriction on judges’ consulting Shariah, Muslims on a secluded plantation are known to have lived under the guidance of a religious leader who wrote a manuscript on Islamic law so that traditional knowledge might survive.

A clue to what happened to these forgotten American Muslims can be found in the words of a missionary traveling through the South to preach the gospel on slave plantations. Many “Mohammedan Africans,” he noted, had found ways to “accommodate” Islam to the new beliefs imposed upon them. “God, say they, is Allah, and Jesus Christ is Mohammed. The religion is the same, but different countries have different names.”

The missionary considered this to be lamentable evidence of Muslims’ inability to recognize the importance of religious truths. But in fact it proves just the opposite. They understood that their faith was important enough that they should listen for it everywhere, even in a country so distant from the places where they had once heard the call to prayer.

Islam is part of our common history — a resilient faith not just of the enslaved, but of Arab immigrants in the late 19th century, and in the 20th century of many African-Americans reclaiming and remaking it as their own. For generations, its adherents have straddled a nation that jolts from promises of religious freedom to events that give the lie to those promises.

In a sense, Islam is as American as the rodeo. It, too, was imported, but is now undeniably part of the culture. Whether or not protesters in Texas and elsewhere are ready for it, it is inevitable that some Muslims will let their babies grow up to be cowboys. A few cowboys may grow up to be Muslims as well.

Peter Manseau is the author, most recently, of “One Nation Under Gods: A New American History.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

rning: The above film contains scenes which may be disturbing to some viewers.

Malek Jandali is no ordinary musician. The Syrian-American composer and pianist has performed in leading concert halls around the world and has also written a song so powerful that his parents were beaten in punishment for its performance.

“I can’t think of a more stark example of how threatening art can be,” says Julie Winokur, who helped produce a new film about Jandali called Notes for My Homeland.

Born in Germany, and raised in Homs, Syria, Jandali is an American citizen who blends traditional Arab music with Western harmonies. Although now living in the U.S., Jandali’s heart is never far from Syria. His song Watani Ana (I Am My Homeland) was a inspired by the killing of children in the Syrian city of Dara’a. After he performed it during a demonstration in Washington, his parents were attacked in their home in Syria.

Source: proof.nationalgeographic.com

The Middle East Quartet powers called Sunday for a speedy resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, urging both sides to avoid any action that could undermine efforts to settle the conflict. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April despite the efforts of US Secretary of State John Kerry to broker a deal, setting the stage for a bloody war in Gaza just a few months later. On Sunday, Kerry met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, European Union foreign affairs head Feder

Source: news.yahoo.com

Dean Obeidallah writes this compelling article about Bassem Youssef, the skewering of Egypt’s political leaders made him famous in the Arab world. Now, with the U.S.-backed regime there cracking down on dissent, he’s coming stateside.

Source: www.thedailybeast.com

Comedy scares some people. Typically, as I have personally witnessed, it’s usually people in positions of power, or bigots. Neither wants to be laughed at out of fear it will undermine their credibility or message. And this fear can cause some to lash out.

Comedian Bassem Youssef, known as “Egypt’s Jon Stewart,” found this out the hard way.  For those unfamiliar with Youssef, he is wildly popular across the Middle East for hosting a weekly TV satirical show that was inspired by Stewart and The Daily Show. Youssef’s show boasted 40 million viewers a week. To put that in perspective, the top rated show on American network TV the week before the Super Bowl was CBS’ Scorpion, which netted about 12 million viewers.

Youssef also has close to four million Twitter followers. That puts him ahead of well-known American celebrities like Robert Downey, Jr., Russell Simmons—and even more than his beloved Daily Show.

But despite Youssef’s superstar status in the Middle East, last year he chose to end his Egyptian TV show. Why? Well, it wasn’t for some Hollywood reason like, “I can’t go any further creatively.” No, the show ended because of reasons beyond Youssef’s control, namely the rise of General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to the Egyptian Presidency in June 2014.

Youssef, who I interviewed Saturday on my weekly SiriusXm radio show, made it clear that under Sisi’s rule there’s no room for political dissent, let alone comedy at Sisi’s expense. Keep in mind that since Sisi came to power less than a year ago, he has reportedly imprisoned scores of journalists critical of his administration and close to 20,000 Egyptians have been incarcerated for speaking out against the regime.

And as Rula Jabreal noted in Salon last week, almost “40,000 people have been detained in prison camps without trial (or put on farcical show trials), tortured, raped and murdered” by Sisi’s government. Yet the Egyptian strongman still has his supporters in Wasington. Just last month, in fact, Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said that he hoped that “one day that our top leaders in this country will have the courage of president el-Sisi in Egypt.”

So Egypt is now very a tough room to play for a political comedian. Forget hecklers: We are talking imprisonment, or worse.

Not that it was always easy for Youssef before Sisi came to power. His show was born out of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. “I would see people in street chanting for freedom and justice. But then I’d go home and on State run TV it was a totally different reality. Imagine all your channels being Fox News,” Youssef joked.

So Youssef, who like many comedians is also a heart surgeon, began filming the protests in Tahrir Square and intercutting it in a comedic ways with the footage from Egypt’s state run TV. He then uploaded the clips on YouTube as five-minute webisodes.  “I really thought maybe we would get 10,000 views,” he said. They wound up getting over five million.

Next thing you know, Youssef is offered a TV show. A political satirical TV show on Egyptian TV is far more remarkable than some might realize. Criticism of the government was not permitted under the almost 30 year reign of Hosni Mubarak, which came to an end in 2011.  In fact, when I performed stand up in Egypt I was told I could make no political jokes about its leaders.

“I would see people in street chanting for freedom and justice. But then I’d go home and on State run TV it was a totally different reality. Imagine all your channels being Fox News.”

But with Mubarak out in early 2011, “fear crumbled and we could finally speak and joke about politics,” Youssef explained.  He noted he was at first tentative about criticizing the leaders of the interim government. There was still a “fear factor.” But soon that faded and the show really took off.

Egypt, however, was in a period of political uncertainty that in turn led to uncertainty on the limits for satire. And what was okay under the interim government soon became more challenging when the nation’s leadership changed in June 2012 and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi was elected president.

Youssef initially encountered few problems for skewering Morsi. Then, in April 2013, Youssef was charged with several crimes stemming from his ridiculing of Morsi and even Morsi’s hat. (It was a huge hat!)

But soon the charges were dropped and Youssef was back in business. In fact, the self-described highlight of his career came in June 2013 when his idol, Stewart, appeared on Youssef’s show. “Jon had been filming his movie Rosewater in Jordan and flew over to be on the show,” Youssef explained.

The studio audience had no idea Stewart would be a guest on that show. Stewart was escorted out with a black hood over his head as part of a comedy bit about catching a spy. Youssef then lifted off the hood to reveal Stewart. The studio audience went insane. I’m talking like HBO Def Comedy Jam audiences but on steroids. Stewart evens spoke some Arabic on the show. 

By the next month, however, Morsi would be forced out of power and the military took control of Egypt.  Youssef tried to navigate these new waters but it soon became clear to him that after Sisi took office in June 2014, there would be no place for satirical humor in Egypt mocking those in power.

So where is Youssef now? On Monday night, Youssef will be making his fourth appearance on The Daily Show, this time delivering a scripted comedy rant about the Middle East. 

And he will be serving as a resident fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for the spring semester. Not a bad gig for a comedian. But that’s only for a few months. From there Youssef may head off to Dubai to start a new venture, but things seem a little bit in flux.

One thing is clear, though: At least for now, Youssef is a comedian who can’t go home.  And it’s all because he tells jokes that scare people in power.

By Ray Hanania Longtime American Arab activists Warren and Amal David are touring the country to promote their newest online venture, ArabAmerica.com. At a luncheon they hosted in Saturday at Fattoush Restaurant in Chicago’s Southwest Suburbs, the heart of Chicagoland’s Arab American community, the David’s presented their community news and information website to a gathering of 40 …

Source: thearabdailynews.com

By Ray Hanania

Longtime American Arab activists Warren and Amal David are touring the country to promote their newest online venture, ArabAmerica.com.

At a luncheon they hosted in Saturday at Fattoush Restaurant in Chicago’s Southwest Suburbs, the heart of Chicagoland’s Arab American community, the David’s presented their community news and information website to a gathering of 40 of the community’s most influential leaders.

Amal David welcomed the gathering of activists and leaders that included Father Nicholas Dahdal of St. George Church, Future Newspaper publisher Mansour Tadros, Hatem Abudayeh of the Arab American Action Network, Samir Khalil of the Arab Democratic Club, radio talk show host and videographer Rush Darwish, businessman and movie producer Wasfi Tolemat, activist Shadin Maali, attorney Fadi Zanayed, cultural activist Iman Saca, AMVOTE president former Judge Bill Haddad, writers Amani Ghouleh, Laila Diab and Summer al-Ghouleh, activist Nayef Ghussein, realtor Edward Hassan, social workers and activists David and Rula Hanania, representatives of several local Mosques and Islamic organizations, and leaders from more than a dozen other organizations and community groups.

Warren David offered a powerpoint presentation following the light meal to detail the many assets that the new website ArabAmerica.com offers to the Arab American community including a national calendar, an aggregation of news stories about American Arabs and Muslims from around the country, and the invitation to join Arab American on a “Community Board” that would discuss ways to empower the community.

“We need to come together under the Arab identity,” Warren David told the gathering. “Our goal is to empower the community.”

David noted that he and his wife Amal launched ArabDetroit.com in 2007 and then expanded it to ArabAmerican.com this past year.

The site sends out an email with information about feature stories, news and videos every Wednesday to more than 100,000 email recipients, a record set this month.

In response to questions, Warren David said that ArabAmerica.com is also a base that can be used by the community to network. he said he is not seeking funds and that the venture has been funded out of his own pocket and with some generous donations from several supporters.

“I have no agenda. My name is Warren David and I am an Arab,” Warren David said. “Our agenda is an Arab American agenda.”

David most recently served as the National President of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which entered its 4th decade in turmoil and under attack from extremists. After David left, ADC’s national board failed to push back against the extremists and allowed the organization to since fall apart amidst the rubble of other national organizations based in Washing DC that long ago lost their influence and constituencies.

But David said he wasn’t discouraged and today ArabAmerica.com is based in Washington DC playing a major role in publicizing community outreach, activities and events.

David also announced that the website will expand its broadcast services which include online radio and music to include video broadcasts, creating a virtual Arab American TV Channel, online at TV.ArabAmerica.com.

The reaction was positive. “I was encouraged by the leadership that was able to come together for this. It shows that there is a need for the community to get together,” said Mansour Tadros, publisher of Chicago’s leading Arab American newspaper The Future News.

“I am encouraged by what they are trying to do. The important thing is to make that link with the community and more importantly to have them provide a foundation for the many organizations that attended. I was impressed and I think if they deliver, it will be a benefit.”

Tadros said that not enough is being done to reach the community “as Arabs,” especially the younger Arab Americans.

“I have never seen an event with the people who attended this meeting come together. If we can do this more often, we can move Chicago and strengthen the Arab community,” Mansour Tadros said.

Warren David stressed that the key is answering the question, “What does the Arab community get from our platform? And when they see the possibilities, I think we will see our community strengthen.”

Here is Warren David’s bio:

President and CEO of David Communications, Warren David epitomizes the entrepreneur who turns visions into thriving enterprises. His career comprises several organizations that he created and developed that have given him a solid track record in the field of communications and a sterling reputation for quality service, spirited management, and high personal and professional integrity.

Mr. David always brings a special flare to projects and events, often serving as program coordinator, moderator, and/or master of ceremonies. Well-rounded in his career and commitment to community and culture, Warren David has mastered the art of making visions real and instilling hope and optimism in his associates and friends.

More than as an entrepreneur, Mr. David excels in mass media communications, community activism and civic responsibility. His enthusiasm for multi-cultural projects is contagious, and his ability to attract people to them is unparalleled.

Mr. David founded and developed LINK Communications Group in 1996 to market long distance service. LINK grew to serve 15,000 customers through an aggressive network of more than 150 independent retailer/sub-dealers.

As Marketing and Sales Director for ANA Radio & Television Network from 1994 to 1996, Mr. David directed, trained, and motivated a national sales force in several major U.S. markets. He increased sales revenue in the Detroit region over 100 percent in less than 12 months.

As Executive Producer of “Arabesque: Insights into Arab Culture” for WDET-FM, he won a Gold Medal from the International Radio Festival of New York. NPR distributed his program to more than 50 affiliates nationwide. For “Arabesque,” he produced compelling programs on all aspects of Arab life and culture.

Mr. David served as Executive Producer for “Our Life in Detroit”, a radio program for Arab-Net/ANA Radio Network. He has produced and directed several video programs that focused on Arab culture. “From A to Z: Arab Contributions to the World” has been shown several times on Public Television in Detroit and at many educational institutions throughout the U.S.

Always mindful of the value of giving back to one’s community, Mr. David enthusiastically and tirelessly participates in a variety of organizations. He currently serves as a board member of the American Syrian Arab Cultural Association of Michigan (ASACA), on the Advisory Board of the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and as an executive board member of St. Andrew’s House.

Warren David has received numerous awards:

• Alex Odeh Memorial Award from the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) at their national convention in Washington, D.C.
• Volunteer Recognition Award from the Arab American Arts Council & ACCESS, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services
• Arab American Media Pioneer Award from ADC
• Gold Medal, International Radio Festival of New York
• Outstanding Community Producer Award, presented by WDET-FM (NPR)

Mr. David is a graduate of Ohio University’s School of Communications in Athens. He and his wife, Dr. Amal Khalil David, have two daughters, Zayna and Ameera.

Source: www.bbc.com

You know what they say about property: “Location, location, location.”

What about building in the midst of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts?

“It’s the biggest ever project in Palestinian history,” exclaims American-Palestinian multi-millionaire Bashar Masri, the driving force behind a new Palestinian city in the hills of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“There’s nothing even close to this, not even half this,” Masri enthuses. We’re walking across what will be a grand Roman amphitheatre in the foothills of a jagged skyline of apartment blocks that, one day, 25,000 people may call home. There’s also the promise of cinemas and shops, parks and playing fields, to complete the kind of middle class dream you’d see in a property development anywhere.

(Reuters) – Israeli officials are considering amending the format of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned address to the U.S. Congress next month to try to calm some of the partisan furore the Iran-focused speech has already provoked.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress about Iran’s nuclear programme on March 3, just two weeks before an Israeli parliamentary election, following an invitation from John Boehner, Republican speaker of the house.

The invitation has caused consternation in Israel and the United States, largely because it is viewed as Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at President Barack Obama’s policy towards Tehran.

It is also seen as putting Netanyahu’s political links to the Republicans ahead of Israel’s bilateral relationship with the United States, while giving the Israeli prime minister a publicity boost ahead of the March 17 election.

As a result, Israeli officials are considering whether Netanyahu should speak in a closed session of Congress or in smaller meetings with Congressmen rather than in a prime-time TV address, so as to defuse the tensions around the event.

Another option is for the prime minister to make his speech at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington the same week rather than in Congress.

“The issue has been under discussion for a week,” said a source close to Netanyahu’s office. “(Netanyahu) is discussing it with Likud people. Some say he should give up on the speech, others that he should go through with it.”

Likud is the right-wing party that Netanyahu leads.

Officials in Netanyahu’s office said that for now his schedule had not changed.

“In the past days the prime minister has been approached several times about his trip to the United States,” one official said. “At the moment there is no change in the plans.”

An opinion poll by Israel’s Army Radio on Monday said 47 percent of people think Netanyahu should cancel the address, while 34 percent say he should go ahead with it.

There are signs the issue is impacting his poll ratings.

PRESSURE

A poll by the Times of Israel on Monday showed Likud would win 23 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, four fewer than the centre-left opposition. Earlier polls had shown Likud and the opposition alliance neck-and-neck on 24 seats each.

Speaking on radio last week, Israel’s deputy foreign minister suggested Netanyahu had been “misled” about the speech, believing it to be bipartisan when Obama’s Democrats were not entirely on board.

While that may have created some room for Netanyahu to pull out if the pressure at home and from Washington becomes too great, it may be too late.

If he withdraws now it may make him look weak with core voters. He also needs an opportunity to play up his tough-on-Iran credentials before the election, with national security an overriding issue for voters.

Addressing French-speaking members of his party on Sunday, Netanyahu appeared to commit fully to the March 3 appointment saying: “I will go any place I’m invited to convey the Israeli position against those who want to kill us”.

Source: www.reuters.com

A national Palestinian committee representing all Palestinian factions announced on Monday it was recommending to ban the sale of products by six Israeli companies in the West Bank, beginning Wednesday.

The companies include Tnuva, Strauss, Osem, Elite, Prigat and Jafora.

The committee chair, PLO executive committee member Mahmoud al-Aloul, said in a press conference in Ramallah that Palestinian retailers were given two weeks to remove the companies’ products. However, committee members called on retailers to adhere to the new policy immediately.

The head of the Palestinian Customs Authority, Ibrahim al-Jazarah, said, “Palestinian customs officials will supervise the implementation of the decision in areas where the Israeli goods are delivered.”

According to Aloul, the committee that made the decision was comprised of all Palestinian organizations and factions, as well as representatives from the business and private sectors.

He said the decision was made in response to Israel’s punitive measures – including delays in the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority and land appropriation – which it had taken following the Palestinians’ UN bid.

“Boycotting Israeli products should be a clear and consistent strategy for the Palestinians,” Aloul said. “It’s the first among several steps … to boycott all Israeli goods that reach the Palestinian market.”

Committee member PLO official Wassel Abu Yusef said boycotting the Israeli goods is part of the Palestinian leadership’s policy of fighting the occupation formally and informally. He said Palestinian merchants should be allowed to “fill the vacuum” created by the boycott.

Source: www.haaretz.com