Dubai Port Firm Enforces Israeli Boycott

The storm surrounding the proposed Arab takeover of several US ports just got stormier. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Dubai-based firm at the center of it all helps enforce the Arab boycott of Israel:

The firm, Dubai Ports World, is seeking control over six major US ports, including those in New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is entirely owned by the Government of Dubai via a holding company called the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), which consists of the Dubai Port Authority, the Dubai Customs Department and the Jebel Ali Free Zone Area.
"Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced," Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview.

"If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem," he said.

A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World.

UPDATE 3/1: The Globes business magazine reports that Dubai Ports World has a contract with Israel's Zim shipping line. Do these two reports contradict each other?

Posted at 05:00 PM

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Comments

What the world needs now more than ever is a replacement for oil as a fuel. Unfortunately the West with its ever increasing dependence on oil has placed a huge weapon in the hands of anti-democratic forces. Now the race is on to reverse the trend. Even Sheikh Yamani, High Priest of the 1973 oil price rise acknowledges that the West will invent a replacement. The question is when.

Posted by: Robert at Mar 1, 2006 2:06:37 PM

In the JPost article the company admits it participates in the boycott of Israel. I choose to believe the JPost article. In any event no arab country should be allowed to manage our ports, arabs cannot be trusted. And we know the UAE has ties to terrorism.

Posted by: Laura at Mar 1, 2006 6:38:30 PM

I only pray that it's invented by Israelis.

Posted by: Michael at Mar 1, 2006 6:58:45 PM

Viable alternatives to petroleum are already being developed, but the development is slow because the US in general and our Pres and VP in particular have significant money invested in oil. Today's diesel engines can be adapted to run on vegetable oil -- even USED vegetable oil (restaurant waste). Propane and fuel cell technologies also exist.

Posted by: Tracey at Mar 1, 2006 8:45:07 PM