King Abdullah on Boycotting Israel

One question from an interview with Jordan's King Abdullah, published in the Jordan Times, dealt with boycotting companies which do business with Israel.

One sometimes wishes those who hate Israel would be less hypocritical and carry out a complete boycott of everything Israeli. If they did so, their societies would not only be firmly entrenched in the Dark Ages sociologically, but also technologically. By keeping themselves devoid of computers, cell phones and virtually all technology we take for granted these days, they would make it far easier for Israelis to keep themselves safe.

It might even lead to peace.

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From the interview:

Q: Another very hot topic around town is the Jordan Festival and the fact that a company called Publicis is organising the event. Some are saying that Publicis has close ties with Israel. The minister of tourism and antiquities has denied that. Many are still calling for a boycott. It is important that we hear directly from you what the truth is.

A: I recently discussed this issue with the prime minister; Publicis is not the company that is organising the Jordan Festival. It is another company called Visiteurs Du Soir.

Today, Arab artists are contemplating cancelling their performances and Arab tourists who were planning on visiting Jordan are cancelling their trips. The government is now wasting its valuable time and resources trying to do damage control. All this because some so-called journalists are too careless and incompetent to do their basic work; it is shameful. This is a case study on how to shoot yourself in the foot, on how to be irresponsible, on how to do a massive disservice to your country and your people and on how to stop our development. Indeed, our worst enemies lie within. Should Jordan's future be held hostage to rumours and gossip? And should false information be the reference for our Jordanian press? Should we remain silent until the truth becomes the victim of irresponsible journalism?

Let us assume for a moment that it is in fact Publicis that is helping to organise the event. In fact, I cannot think of a major company that does not do business with Israel. If all these companies are offlimits then we are in deep trouble. For example, Intel whose chips power 80 per cent of computers around the world has billions of dollars of investments in Israel; its closest competitor AMD also has large investments in Israel. Does that mean we should throw our computers away? This is nonsense. If we follow this line of thought, then we will be doing the best service to Israel. All it has to do is use the best technology and best talent in the world and automatically it would be offlimits to us.