BOYCOTTING AMERICAN BUSINESSES?!
Emotions vs. Realities

Reacting to the current massacres in Palestine, and the United States’ role (or lack of it) with regards to stopping Israeli aggressions, numerous calls, articles, demonstrations, emails are resonating throughout the Arab World, to boycott American businesses.

Tell us what you think, send your opinion; which the Interest Zone will share with our tens of thousands of visitors on this page in the coming weeks.

Emotionally, we believe all Arabs and the overwhelming majority of objective observers are enraged by the atrocities inflicted by israel on the Palestinians. It is a fact that the United Sates of America is today the most powerful nation in the world; it is also israel’s strongest ally and supporter.

When calling for (or supporting) a “boycott” of American products and services, there are a few questions that deserve to be answered, away from emotions:

1.  Should Arab populations boycott American products and services?

2.  And if yes; what would be the impact on tens of thousands of Arabs that are directly employed with these businesses in the region or whose jobs are indirectly depending on them (suppliers, service providers etc.)? 

3.  What will be the impact on employers who have invested millions in such businesses? And companies selling/supplying such businesses (sales of goods and services are estimated in the hundred of millions) – for example, should skill-link.com refuse to accept paying subscriptions (for those wishing to recruit Arabs registered on skill-link.com) or advertising banners from companies identified as selling American products?

4.  What qualifies as an American business (in that respect)? Is a fast food franchise of say Pizza Hut or KFC, financed by Arab investors and banks in addition to being fully staffed by Arabs and heavily depending on local suppliers considered an American business, thus it should be boycotted? How about joint ventures such as General Motors Egypt? How about a soft drinks bottling company 100% owned by Arabs, such as the companies in Egypt or Saudi Arabia bottling and distributing Pepsi or 7UP? The largest Audit firms in the world (the Big 5: KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloitte Touche, Ernst & Young and Andersen) all have their head offices in the US, the largest 1000 Arab companies are audited by their affiliates in the region, should we consider them American businesses and refuse to have them audit Arab companies’ financials?

5.  Should “boycotting” be selective? i.e. Non essential products and services to be boycotted (such as fast food, movies, hotels); while more essential products be excluded from the list, such as Microsoft Windows, Intel Microprocessors, pharmaceuticals etc…? How about credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, and American Express Card that are all of American origins? On that front, it is worth mentioning, that the numerous “boycott lists” and “boycott emails” we received were sent using Yahoo and Hotmail accounts! These are definitely operated by American companies, and while free, generate traffic to the owners that is translated to millions in advertising revenues… should we also switch to Arab email accounts (maktoob.com, arabia.com, LINKdotNET, masrawy.com etc….)?

All Arab airlines – with no exception - have at least half their fleets bought from Boeing (the only other available plane manufacturer is the European owned Airbus company); should we stop buying spare parts from Boeing and ground all those planes valued in the tens of USD billions?

Also, on that front, should Arab students enrolled in American Universities in the US or even in the Middle East (in Cairo and Beirut) interrupt their studies and transfer to local universities? What should the thousands of Arab professionals currently enrolled in CPA programs or Microsoft Certifications (with fees paid to American organizations) do?

6.  What is the financial impact on the American companies themselves measured as a percentage of their overall worldwide sales/profits (not the impact on the local Arab agents, franchisees, staff or suppliers, let alone governments that collect income taxes, sales taxes, custom duties and social insurance contributions)? Would this really hurt the targeted American companies?

7.  Should we also consider that the American market could react and stop importing products generating from the Arab countries? What about affluent American tourists? Who will be more negatively affected: Arab businesses or American companies? 

Consider the above questions, think about the impact on Arab jobs, incomes, businesses, investments and the impact on the US, and then let us know what you think. Is it the right thing to do? Should we go for symbolic actions? Should we think of alternative ways to express our anger?